Skip to main content

Full text of "Apparitions And Thought Transference"

See other formats 


DAMAGE  BOOK 


ilj<OU  158638  £m 


The  Contemporary  Science  Series. 

I.  THE   EVOLUTION  OF  SEX.      By  Professor  PATRICK  GEDDES  and 

J.  ARTHUR  TIIOMSOV.    With  90  Illustrations.    Second  Edition. 
"  The  authors  have  brought  to  the  task — as  indeed  their  names  guarantee 
— a  wealth  of  knowledge,  a  lucid  and  attractive  method  of  treatment,  and  a 
rich  vein  of  picturesque  language." — Nature. 

II.  ELECTRICITY  IN  MODERN  LIFE.     By  G.  W.  DE  TUNZELMANN. 

With  88  Illustrations. 

"  A  clearly-written  and  connected  sketch  of  what  is  known  about  electricity 
and  magnetism,  the  mor^  prominent  modern  applications,  and  the  pnnciples 
on  which  they  are  based  "—Saturday  Revieio. 

III.  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  ARYANS.     By  Dr.  ISAAC  TAYLOR.     Illus- 

trated.    Second  Edition. 

"  Canon  Taylor  is  probably  the  most  enryclopredic  all-round  scholar  now 
living.  His  new  volume  on  the  Origin  of  the  Aryans  is  a  first-rate  example  of 
the  excellent  account  to  which  he  can  turn  his  exceptionally  wide  and  varied 
information.  .  .  .  Masterly  and  exhaustive." — Pali  Mali  Gazette. 

IV.  PHYSIOGNOMY     AND     EXPRESSION.       By     P.     MANTKGAZZA. 

Illustrated. 

"Professor  Mantegazza  is  a  writer  full  of  life  and  spirit,  and  the  nat-iral 
attiacf  iveness  of  hiS  subject  is  not  destroyed  by  his  scientific  handling  of  it." 
— Litftary  World  (Boston). 

V.  EVOLUTION  AND  DISEASE.     By  J.  B.   SUTTON,  F  R.C.S.     With 

135  Illustrations. 

"The  book  is  as  interesting  as  a  novel,  without  sacrifice  of  accuracy  or 
system,  and  is  calculated  to  give  an  appieciation  of  the  fundamentals  of 
pathology  to  the  lay  reader,  while  forming  a  useful  collection  of  illustrations 
of  dfoea&e  for  medical  reference." — Journal  of  Mental  Science. 

VI.  THE  VILLAGE  COMMUNITY.     By  G.  L.  GOMME.     Illustrated. 
"The  fruit  of  some  years  of  investigation  on  a  subject  which  has  of  late 

attracted  much  attention,  and  is  of  much  importance,  inasmuch  as  it  lies  at 
the  basis  of  our  society." — Antiquary. 

VII.  TIIK  CRIMINAL.     By  HAVELOCK  ELLIS.     Illustrated. 

"An  ably  written,  an  instructive,  and  a  most  entertaining  book." — Law 
Quarterly  Review. 

VIII.  SANITY  AND  INSANITY.     By  Dr.  CHARLES   MFRCIER.     Illns- 
tiated. 

"  Taken  as  a  whole,  it  is  the  brightest  book  on  the  physical  aide  of  mental 
science  published  in  our  time."— Pall  Mall  Gazette. 

IX.  HYPNOTISM.     By  Dr.  ALBERT  MOLL.     Second  Edition. 

"  Marks  a-  step  of  some  importance  in  the  study  of  some  difficult  physio, 
logical  and  psychological  problems  which  have  not  yet  received  much  atten- 
tion in  the  scientific  world  of  England."— Nat u re. 

X.  MANUAL  TRAINING.     By  Dr.  C.  M.  WOODWARD,  Director  of  the 

Manual  Training  School,  St  Louis.    Illustrated. 

"  There  is  no  greater  authority  on  the  subject  than  Professor  Woodward."— 
Manchester  Guardian. 

XL  THE  SCIENCE  OP  FAIRY  TALES.     By  E.  SIDNEY  HARTLAND. 

"  Mr.  Ilartland's  book  will  win  the  sympathy  of  all  earnest  students,  both 
by  the  kno\yled<j;e  it  displays,  and  by  a  thorough  love  and  appreciation  of  hid 
subject,  which  is  evident  throughout." — Spectator. 

XII.  PRIMITIVE  FOLK.     By  ELIE  RECLUS. 

"  For  an  introduction  to  the  study  of  the  questions  of  property,  marriage, 
government,  religion,-— in  a  word,  to  the  evolution  of  society,— this  little 
volume  will  be  found  most  convenient,"— Scottia h  Leader. 


XIII.  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MARRIAGE.    By  Professor  LETOURNBATT. 
"  Among  the  distinguished  French  students  of  sociology,  Professor  Letour- 

neau  has  lon^  stood  in  the  first  rank  He  approaches  tho  great  stiuly  of  man 
free  from  bias  and  shy  of  generalisations.  To  collect,  scrutinise,  and  appraise 
facts  is  his  chief  business." — Science. 

XIV.  BACTERIA  AND  THEIR  PRODUCTS.     By  Dr.  G.  SIMS  WOOD- 
HKAD.     lllustiated. 

"  An  excellent  summary  of  the  present  state  of  knowledge  of  the  subject."— 
Lancet. 

XV.  EDUCATION  AND  HEREDITY.     By  J.  M.  GUYAU. 

"It  is  at  once  a  treatise  on  sociology,  ethics,  and  rrodagogics.  It  is 
doubtful  whether  among  all  the  ardent  evolutionists  who  have  had  their  say 
on  the  moral  and  the  educational  question  any  one  has  earned  forward  tho 
new  doctrine  )  boldly  to  its  extreme  logical  consequence." — Professor 
SULLY  m  Mma. 

XVI.  THE  MAN  OF  GENIUS.     By  Professor  LOMBROSO.     Illustrated. 
"By  far  the  most  comprehensive  and  fascinating  collection  of  facU  and 

generalisations  concerning  genius  which  has  yet  been  brought  together."— 
Jouinai  of  Mental  Science. 

XVII.  THE   GRAMMAR   OF    SCIENCE.     By  KARL  PEARSON,  M.A., 
(iienham  Fiofessor  of  Geometry.     Illustrated. 

"The  problems  discussed  with  great  ability  and  lucidity,  and  often  in  a 
moat  suggestive  manner,  by  Prof  Pearson,  are  such  as  should  interest  all 
students  of  natural  science." — Aatutai  Sctencx. 

XVIII.  PROPERTY:   ITS  ORIGIN  AND  DEVELOPMENT.     By  Pro- 
fessor LETOUHMEAU. 

"  M  Letoiirneau  has  read  a  great  deal,  and  he  seems  to  ns  to  have  selected 
and  interpreted  his  facts  with  considerable  judgment  and  learning."—  West- 
rmn*£<r  Review. 

XIX.  VOLCANOES :  PAST  AND  PRESENT.    By  EDWARD  HULL,  M.  A., 
LL.D.,  F.II.S.     With  45  .Illustrations. 

"A  very  readable  account  of  tho  phenomena  of  volcanoes  and  earth- 
quakes."—A  ature. 

XX.  PUBLIC    HEALTH.     By  Dr.  J.  F.  J.  STKES.     With  numerous 
Illustrations. 

"Takes  up  essential  points  in  evolution,  environment,  prophylaxis,  and 
sanitation  bearing  upon  the  preservation  of  public  health."  —Lancet. 

XXI.  MODERN   METEOROLOGY.     By   FRANK   WALDO,    Ph.D.,  etc. 
With  112  Illustrations. 

"The  present  volume  is  the  best  on  the  subject  for  general  use  that  we 
have  seen." — Daily  Telegraph. 

XXII.  THE  GERM-PLASM:    A   THEORY  OF  HEREDITY.     By  Dr.  A. 
WEISMANN.    Illustrated. 

"There  has  been  no  work  published  since  Darwin's  own  books  which  has 
brought  to  light  so  many  new  facts." — British  Medical  Journal. 

XXIII.  INDUSTRIES  OF  ANIMALS.     By  F.  HOUSSAY.     Illustrated. 
"His  accuracy  is  undoubted,  yet  his  facts  out-marvel  all  romance.     These 

facts  are  here  made  use  of  as  materials  wherewith  to  form  ,the  mighty  fabiio 
of  evolution." — Manchester  Guardian. 

XXIV.  MAN    AND    WOMAN  :     A    STUDY    OF   HUMAN   SECONDARY 
SEXUAL  CHARACTERS.    By  HAVELOCK  ELLIS.    With  Illustrations. 

"There  is  no  work  approaching  hia  [Mr.  Ellis's]  in  exhaustiveness, 
accuracy,  and  fairness  of  judgment." 

XXV.  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MODERN  CAPITALISM.    A  STUDY  OF 
MACHINE  PRODUCIION.    By  JOHN  A.  HOUSON,  M  A.    With  Diagrams. 

XXVI.  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE:   OR,  THE 
COMMUNICATION   OF   SF.NSATIONS,  IDEAS,  AND   EMOTIONS  OTHERWISE 

THAN  BY  THE  KNOWN  SENSES.      By  FltANK  PODMORE.     Illustrated. 


THE  CONTEMPORARY  SCIENCE  SERIES. 
EDITED  BY  HAVELOCK  ELLIS. 


APPARITIONS 
AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 


APPARITIONS 


AND 


THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 


AN  EXAMINATION  OF  THE  EVIDENCE 
FOR   TELEPATHY. 


BY 


FRANK    PODMORE,    M.A. 


WITH  NUMEROUS  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


LONDON : 

WALTER   SCOTT,    LTD., 

24  WARWICK   LANE,    PATERNOSTER   ROW. 
1894. 


VI  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  III. 

PVGE 

EXPERIMENTAL   TRANSFERENCE  OF   SIMPLE   SENSA- 
TIONS WITH  HYPNOTISED  PERCIPIENTS        ...       58 

Transference  of  tastes,  by  Dr.  Azam — Of  pain,  by 
Edmund  Gurney  —  Of  visual  images,  by  Dr.  Liebeault, 
Professor  and  Mrs.  Henry  Sidgwick,  Dr.  Gibotteau,  Dr. 
Blair  Thaw. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

EXPERIMENTAL   PRODUCTION  OF    MOVEMENTS   AND 

OTHER  EFFECTS  82 

Inhibition  of  action  by  silent  willing,  by  Edmund  Gurney, 
Professor  Barrett,  and  others — Origination  of  action  by 
silent  willing,  by  Dr.  Blair  Thaw,  M.  J.  II.  P.,  and 
others — Planchette-writing,  by  Rev.  P.  II.  Newnham,  Mr. 
R.  H.  Buttemer— Table-tilting,  by  the  Author,  by  Professor 
Richet  —  Production  of  local  anaesthesia,  by  Edmund 
Gurney,  Mrs.  H.  Sidgwick. 


CHAPTER  V. 

EXPERIMENTAL  PRODUCTION  OF  TELEPATHIC  EFFECTS 

AT  A  DISTANCE  ...         ...         ...         ...     105 

Induction  of  sleep,  by  Dr.  Gibert  and  Professor  Janet, 
Professor  Richet,  Dr.  Dufay— Of  hysteria  and  other  effects, 
by  Dr.  Tolosa-Latour,  M.  J.  H.  P.  — Transference  of  ideas 
of  sound,  by  Miss  X.,  M.  J.  Ch.  Roux — Of  visual 
images,  by  Miss  Campbell,  M.  Le*on  Hennique,  Mr.  Kirk, 
Dr.  Gibotteau. 


CONTENTS.  Vli 

CHAPTER  VI. 

PAGE 

GENERAL  CRITICISM  OF  THE  EVIDENCE  FOR  SPON- 
TANEOUS THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 143 

On  chance  coincidence  —  Misrepresentation  —  Errors  of 
observation— Errors  of  inference— Errors  of  narration — 
Errors  of  memory — "  Pseudo-presentiment " — Precautions 
against  error—-"  Where  are  the  letters?  " — The  spontaneous 
cases  as  a  true  natural  group. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


TRANSFERENCE  OF  IDEAS  AND  EMOTIONS 161 

Transference  of  pain,  Mr.  Arthur  Severn — Of  smell,  Miss  X. 
— Of  ideas,  Miss  X. ,  Mrs.  Barber — Of  visual  images,  Mr. 
Haynes,  Professor  Richet,  Dr.  Dupr£ — Of  emotion,  Mr.  F. 
H.  Krebs,  Dr.  N.,  Miss  Y. — Of  motor  impulses,  Archdeacon 
Bruce,  Professor  Venturi. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


COINCIDENT  DREAMS  185 

Discussion  of  the  evidence  for  telepathy  derivable  from 
dreams — Chance-coincidence — Simultaneous  dreams,  the 
Misses  Bidder — Transference  of  sensation  in  dreams,  Pro- 
fessor Royce,  Mrs.  Harrison — Dreams  conveying  news  of 
death,  etc.,  Mr.  J.  T.,  Mr.  R.  V.  Boyle,  Captain  Camp-- 
bell,  Mr.  E.  W.  Hamilton,  Mr.  Edward  A.  Goodall— Clair- 
voyant dream,  Mrs.  E.  J. 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IX. 

PAGE 

ON  HALLUCINATION  IN  GENERAL 207 

Common  misconceptions — Hypnotic  hallucinations,  experi- 
ments by  MM.  Binet  and  Fe*re,  Mr.  Myers — Point  de  reptrc 
— Post-hypnotic  hallucinations,  Professor  Liegeois,  Edmund 
Gurney — Spontaneous  hallucinations,  Professor  Sidgwick's 
census— Table  showing  classification  of  spontaneous  hallu- 
cinations— Origin  of  hallucinations,  sometimes  telepathic 
— Proof  of  this,  calculation  of  chance-coincidence,  allow- 
ance for  defects  of  memory — Conclusion. 


CHAPTER  X. 

INDUCED  TELEPATHIC  HALLUCINATIONS      226 

Possible  misconceptions — Accounts  of  experiments,  by  Rev. 
Clarence  Godfrey,  Herr  Wesermann,  Mr.  H.  P.  Sparks,  and 

A.  II.  W.  Cleave,  Mrs  B ,  Dr.  von  Schrenck-Notzing, 

Dr.  Wiltse,  Mr.  Kirk. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


SPONTANEOUS  TELEPATHIC  HALLUCINATIONS         ...    247 

Auditory  hallucinations,  Miss  Clark,  Mr.  William  Tudor 
— Visual  hallucinations — Incompletely  developed,  Countess 
Eugenie  Kapnist,  Miss  L.  Caldecott,  Dr.  Carat — Com- 
pletely developed,  Miss  Berta  Hurly,  Mrs.  Me  Alpine, 
Miss  Mabel  Gore  Booth— Hallucinations  affecting  two 
senses,  Rev.  Matthew  Frost,  M.  A . 


CONTENTS.  ix 

CHAPTER  XII. 

J'AGE 

COLLECTIVE  HALLUCINATIONS  268 

Illusions,  epidemic  hallucinations,  illusions  of  memory — 
Explanations  of  collective  hallucination — Auditory  hallucin- 
ations, Mr.  C.  H.  Gary,  Miss  Newbold— Visual  hallucina- 
tions, Mrs.  Greiffenberg,  Mrs.  Milman  and  Miss  Camp- 
bell, Mr.  and  Mrs.  C ,  Mr.  Falkinburg,  Dr.  W.  O.  S., 

Rev.  C.  H.  Jupp— Collective  hallucinations  with  percipients 
apart,  Sister  Martha  and  Madame  Houdaille,  Sir  Lawrence 
Jones  and  Mr.  Herbert  Jones. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

SOME  LESS  COMMON  TYPES  OF  TELEPATHIC  HALLU- 
CINATION   297 

Reciprocal  cases,  Rev.  C.   L.  Evans  and  Miss A 

misinterpreted  message,  Miss  C.  L.  Hawkins-Dempster — 

Heteroplastic  hallucination,  Mrs.  G ,  Frances  Reddell, 

Mr.  John   Husbands,    Mr.   J "Haunted  houses," 

Mrs.  Knott  and  others,  Surgeon-Major  W.  and  others. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

ON  CLAIRVOYANCE  IN  TRANCE         326 

Definition  of  clairvoyance—Accounts  of  phenomena  observed 
with  Mrs.  Piper,  by  Professor  Lodge,  Professor  W.  James, 
and  others— Accounts  of  experiments  by  Mr.  A.  W.  Dobbie, 
Dr.  Wiltse,  Mr.  W.  Boyd,  Dr.  F ,  Dr.  Backman. 


X  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XV. 

PAGE 

ON  CLAIRVOYANCE  IN  THE  NORMAL  STATE          ...    351 

Observations  of  M.  Keulemans  —  Crystal-visions,  Miss  X.  , 
Dr.  Backman,  Miss  A.  and  Sir  Joseph  Barnby—  -Spontan- 
eous clairvoyance,  Mrs.  Paquet,  Mr,  F.  A,  Marks,  Mrs. 
L.  Z,  —  Clairvoyance  in  dream,  Mrs.  Freese  —  Clairvoyant 
perceptivity  in  an  experiment,  Dr.  Gibotteau. 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

THEORIES  AND  CONCLUSIONS  ...        :  .....     371 


t)  the  proof  apparent  —  The  proof  presumptive  —  The 
alleged  influence  of  magnets  and  metals—  The  alleged 
marvels  of  spiritualism  —  Usage  of  the  word  telepathy  —  On 
various  theories  of  telepathy  —  Difficulties  of  a  physical 
explanation  —  Value  of  theory  as  a  guide  to  investigation  — 
Is  telepathy  a  rudimentary  or  a  vestigial  faculty?  —  Our 
ignorance  stands  in  the  way  of  a  conclusive  answer  —  Im- 
perative need  for  more  facts. 


PREFACE. 


THE  following  pages  aim  at  presenting  in  brief 
compass  a  selection  of  the  evidence  upon  which 
the  hypothesis  of  thought-transference,  or  telepathy, 
is  based.  It  is  now  more  than  twelve  years  since 
the  Society  for  Psychical  Research  was  founded,  and 
nearly  eight  since  the  publication  of  Phantasms  of  the 
Living.  Both  in  the  periodical  Proceedings  of  the 
Society  and  in  the  pages  of  Edmund  Gurney's  book,1  a 
large  mass  of  evidence  has  been  laid  before  the  public. 
But  the  papers  included  in  the  Proceedings  are  inter- 
spersed with  other  matter,  some  of  it  too  technical  for 
the  taste  of  the  general  reader;  whilst  the  two  volumes 
of  Phantasms  of  the  Living,  which  have  for  some  time 

1  The  book  actually  bore  on  the  title-page  the  names  of  Edmund 
Gurney,  F.  W.  H.  Myers,  and  the  present  writer.  But  the  division  of 
authorship,  as  explained  in  the  Preface,  was  as  follows  : — "  As  regards 
the  writing  and  the  views  expressed,  Mr.  Myers  is  solely  responsible 
for  the  Introduction,  and  for  the  *  Note  on  a  Suggested  Mode  of 
Psychical  Interaction;'  and  Mr.  Gurney  is  solely  responsible  for  the 
remainder  of  the  book.  .  .  .  But  the  collection,  examination,  and 
appraisal  of  evidence  has  been  a  joint  labour." 


Xll  PREFACE. 

been  out  of  print,  were  too  costly  for  the  purse  of 
some,  and  too  bulky  for  the  patience  of  others.  The 
attention  which,  notwithstanding  these  drawbacks, 
that  work  excited  on  its  first  appearance,  the  friendly 
reception  which  it  met  with  in  many  quarters,  and  the 
fact  that  a  considerable  edition  has  been  disposed  of, 
encouraged  the  hope  that  a  book  on  somewhat  similar 
lines,  but  on  a  smaller  scale,  might  be  of  service  to 
those — and  their  number  has  probably  increased 
within  the  last  few  years — who  take  a  genuine  interest 
in  this  inquiry.  Accordingly  in  the  autumn  of  1892 
I  obtained  permission  from  the  Council  of  the  Society 
for  Psychical  Research  to  make  full  use,  in  the  com- 
pilation of  the  present  work,  not  merely  of  the 
evidence  already  published  by  us,  but  of  the  not  incon- 
siderable mass  of  unpublished  records  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  Society. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  present  book  has  little  claim 
to  novelty  of  design ;  but  it  is  not  merely  an  abridged 
edition  of  the  larger  work  referred  to.  On  the  one 
hand  it  has  a  somewhat  wider  scope,  and  includes 
accounts  of  telepathic  clairvoyance  and  other  pheno- 
mena which  did  not  enter  into  the  scheme  of  Mr. 
Gurney's  book.  On  the  other  hand,  the  bulk  of  the 
illustrative  cases  here  quoted  have  been  taken  from 
more  recent  records ;  and,  in  particular,  certain  branches 
of  the  experimental  work  have  assumed  a  quite  new 
importance  within  the  last  few  years.  Thus  the 
experiments  conducted  by  Mrs.  Henry  Sidgwick  at 
Brighton  have  strengthened  the  demonstration  of 


PREFACE.  xiii 

thought-transference,  and  have  gone  far  to  solve  one 
or  two  of  the  problems  connected  with  the  subject; 
and  the  evidence  for  the  experimental  production  of 
telepathic  effects  at  a  distance  has  been  greatly 
enlarged  by  the  work  of  MM.  Janet  and  Gibert,1 
Richet,  Gibotteau,  Schrenck-Notzing,  and  in  this 
country  by  Mr.  Kirk  and  others.2  It  may  be  added 
that  some  of  the  criticisms  called  forth  by  Phantasms 
of  the  Living,  and  our  own  further  researches,  have  led 
us  to  modify  our  estimate  of  the  evidence  in  some 
directions,  and  to  strengthen  generally  the  pre- 
cautions taken  against  the  unconscious  warping  of 
testimony. 

To  say,  however,  that  the  following  pages  owe 
much  to  Edmund  Gurney  is  but  to  acknowledge 
the  obligation  which  all  students  of  the  subject 
must  recognise  to  his  keen  and  vigorous  intellect  and 
his  colossal  industry.  My  own  debt  is  a  more  personal 
one.  To  have  worked  under  his  guidance,  and  to 
have  been  stimulated  by  his  example,  was  an  invalu- 
able schooling  in  the  qualities  demanded  by  an 
inquiry  of  this  nature.  Of  the  living,  I  owe  grateful 
thanks,  in  the  first  instance,  to  Professor  and  Mrs. 
Henry  Sidgwick,  who  have  read  through  the  whole 
of  the  book  in  typescript,  and  have  given  help  and 
counsel  throughout.  Miss  Alice  Johnson,  Mr.  F. 
W.  H.  Myers,  the  late  Dr.  A.  T.  Myers,  Miss  Porter, 

1  Some  account  of  the  earlier  experiments  by  MM.  Janet  and  Gibert 
was  included  in  the  supplementary  chapter  at  the  end  of  the  second 
volume  of  Phantasms. 

8  See  Chapters  V.  and  X.  of  the  present  book. 


XIV  PREFACE. 

and  others  have  also  given  me  welcome  help  in 
various  directions.  In  acknowledging  this  assistance, 
however,  it  is  right  to  add  that,  though  I  trust  in  my 
estimate  of  the  evidence  presented,  and  in  the  general 
tenour  of  the  conclusions  suggested,  to  find  myself, 
with  few  exceptions,  in  substantial  agreement  with 
my  colleagues,  yet  I  have  no  claim  to  represent  the 
Society  for  Psychical  Research,  nor  right  to  cloak 
my  own  shortcomings  with  the  authority  of  others. 

One  word  more  needs  to  be  said.  The  evidence,  of 
which  samples  are  presented  in  the  following  pages, 
is  as  yet  hardly  adequate  for  the  establishment  of 
telepathy  as  a  fact  in  nature,  and  leaves  much  to  be 
desired  for  the  elucidation  of  the  laws  under  which 
it  operates.  Any  contributions  to  the  problem,  in 
the  shape  either  of  accounts  of  experiments,  or  of 
recent  records  of  telepathic  visions  and  similar 
experiences,  will  be  gladly  received  by  me  on  behalf 
of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  at  19  Bucking- 
ham Street,  Adelphi,  W.C. 

FRANK  PODMORE. 
August  1894. 


APPARITIONS 
AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 


APPARITIONS    AND 
THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTORY — SPECIAL  GROUNDS  OF  CAUTION. 

IT  is  salutary  sometimes  to  reflect  how  recent  is  the 
growth  of  our  scientific  cosmos,  and  how  brief  an 
interval  separates  it  from  the  chaos  which  went  before. 
This  may  be  seen  even  in  Sciences  which  deal  with 
matters  of  common  observation.  Amongst  material 
phenomena  the  facts  of  Geology  are  assuredly  not 
least  calculated  to  excite  the  curiosity  or  impress  the 
imagination  of  men.  Yet  until  the  middle  of  the  last 
century  no  serious  attempt  was  made  to  solve  the 
physical  problems  they  presented.  The  origin  of  the 
organic  remains  embedded  in  the  rocks  had  indeed 
formed  the  subject  of  speculation  ever  since  the 
days  of  Aristotle.  Theophrastus  had  suggested  that 
they  were  formed  by  the  plastic  forces  of  Nature. 
Mediaeval  astrologers  ascribed  their  formation  to 
planetary  influences.  And  these  hypotheses,  with  the 
alternative  view  of  the  Church,  that  fossil  bones  and 
shells  were  relics  of  the  Mosaic  Deluge,  appear  to 
have  satisfied  the  learned  of  Europe  until  the  time  of 
Voltaire,  who  reinforced  the  rationalistic  position,  as 
he  conceived  it,  by  the  suggestion  that  the  shells,  at 

I 


2     APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

any  rate,  had  been  dropped  from  the  hats  of  pilgrims 
returning  from  the  Holy  Land.  Yet  Werner  and 
Hutton  were  even  then  preparing  to  elucidate  the 
causes  of  stratification  and  the  genesis  of  the  igneous 
rocks.  Cuvier  in  the  next  generation  was  to  demon- 
strate the  essential  analogies  of  the  fossils  found  in 
the  Paris  basin  with  living  species  ;  Agassiz  was  to 
investigate  the  relation  of  fossil  fishes  and  to  show 
the  true  nature  of  their  embedded  remains,  Nay, 
even  in  the  middle  of  the  present  century,  so  slow  is 
the  growth  and  spread  of  organised  knowledge,  it  was 
possible  for  a  pious  Scotchman  to  ascribe  the  origin 
of  mountain  chains  to  a  cataclysm  which,  after  the 
fall  of  Man,  had  broken  up  and  distorted  the  once 
symmetrical  surface  of  the  earth;1  for  a  Dean  of 
York  to  essay  to  bring  the  Mediaeval  theory  up  to 
date  and  prove  that  the  whole  series  of  geological 
strata,  with  their  varied  organic  remains,  were  formed 
by  volcanic  eruptions  acting  in  concert  with  the 
Mosaic  Deluge;2  and  for  another  English  divine  to 
warn  his  readers  against  any  sacrilegious  meddling 
with  the  arcana  of  the  rocks,  because  they  represented 
the  tentative  essays  of  the  Creator  at  organic  forms — 
a  concealed  storehouse  of  celestial  misfits!3 

The  subject-matter  of  the  present  inquiry  has 
passed,  or  is  now  passing,  through  stages  closely 
similar  to  those  above  described.  "  Ghosts "  and 
warning  dreams  have  been  matters  of  popular  belief 
and  interest  since  the  earliest  ages  known  to  history, 
and  are  prevalent  amongst  even  the  least  advanced 
races  at  the  present  time.  The  Specularii  and  Dr. 
Dee  have  familiarised  us  with  clairvoyance  and 
crystal  vision.  Many  of  the  alleged  marvels  of 

1  Primary  and  Present  State  of  the  Solar  System^  by  P.  McFarlane. 
Edinburgh,  Thomas  Grant,  circa  1845. 

2  At  the  meeting  of  the  British  Association  in  1844;   quoted  by 
Hugh  Miller,  Testimony  of  the  Rocks ',  pp.  358,  359. 

8  A  Brief  and  Complete  Refutation  of  the  Antiscriptural  Theory  of 
the  Geologists^  by  a  Clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England.  London, 
1853 ;  quoted  by  Hugh  Miller,  he.  cit. 


SPECIAL  GROUNDS  OF  CAUTION.  3 

witchcraft  were  probably  due  to  the  agency  of 
hypnotism,  which  in  later  times,  under  the  various 
names  of  mesmerism,  electrobiology,  animal  mag- 
netism, has  attracted  the  curiosity  of  the  unlettered, 
and  from  time  to  time  the  serious  interest  of  the 
learned.  These  phenomena  indeed  were  made  the 
subject  of  scientific  inquiry,  first  in  France  and  later 
in  England,  during  the  first  half  of  the  present 
century ;  have  now  again,  after  a  brief  period  of 
eclipse,  been  investigated  for  the  last  two  decades  by 
competent  observers  on  the  Continent,  and  are  at 
length  winning  a  recognised  footing  in  scientific 
circles  in  this  country.  Yet  within  the  last  two  or 
three  years  we  have  witnessed  the  spectacle  of  more 
than  one  medical  man,  of  some  repute  in  this  island, 
laughing  to  scorn  all  the  researches  of  Charcot  and 
Bernheim,  just  as  their  prototypes  a  generation  or  two 
ago  ignored  the  results  of  Cuvier  and  Agassiz,  and 
held  it  an  insult  to  the  Creator  to  accept  the  scientific 
explanation  of  coprolites. 

And  as  regards  the  other  subjects,  to  which  must 
be  added  the  alleged  marvels  of  the  Spiritualists, 
there  have  indeed  been  one  or  two  isolated  series 
of  observations  by  competent  inquirers,  but  for  the 
most  part  the  learned  have  held  themselves  free  to 
ascribe  the  phenomena  without  investigation  to  fraud 
and  hysteria,  and  the  unlearned  to  "magnetism," 
"psychic  force,"  or  the  Devil.  For  whilst  men  of 
science,  preoccupied  for  the  most  part  with  other 
lines  of  inquiry,  have  kept  themselves  aloof,  the 
vacant  ground  was  naturally  occupied  by  the  ignor- 
ant and  credulous,  and  by  those  who  looked  to  win  a 
harvest  from  ignorance  and  credulity.  It  is  not  of 
course  implied  that  all  persons  who  interested  them- 
selves in  such  matters  came  under  one  or  other  of 
these  categories.  There  were  many  sensible  men 
and  women  amongst  them,  but  they  lacked  for  the 
most  part  the  special  training  necessary  for  such 
inquiries,  or  they  failed  through  want  of  co-operation 


4    APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

and  support.  No  serious  and  organised  attempt  at 
investigation  was  made  until,  in  1882,  the  Society  for 
Psychical  Research  was  founded  in  London,  under 
the  presidency  of  Professor  Henry  Sidgwick.  He 
and  his  colleagues  were  the  pioneers  in  the  research, 
and  their  example  has  been  widely  followed.  Two 
years  later  an  American  society  under  the  same  title 
(now  a  flourishing  branch  of  the  English  society)  was 
founded  in  Boston  ;  and  there  are  at  the  present  time 
societies  with  similar  objects  at  Berlin,  Munich, 
Stockholm,  and  elsewhere.  Moreover,  the  Socidte  de 
Psychologic  Physiologique,  which  was  founded  in 
Paris,  under  the  presidency  of  M.  Charcot,  in  1885,  has 
devoted  much  attention  to  some  forms  of  telepathy. 

But  the  forces  of  superstition  and  charlatanry,  to 
which  this  vast  territory  has  been  ceded  for  so  long, 
have  bequeathed  an  unfortunate  legacy  to  those  who 
would  now  colonise.it  in  the  name  of  Science;  and 
the  preliminary  difficulties  of  the  undertaking  can 
perhaps  most  effectually  be  met  by  a  frank  recognition 
of  that  fact.  On  the  one  hand,  a  large  number  of 
thinking  men  have  been  repelled,  and  still  feel  repul- 
sion, from  a  subject  whose  record  is  so  unsavoury. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  appetite  for  the  marvellous 
which  has  been  so  long  unchecked  is  not  easily  re- 
strained. The  old  habits  of  inaccuracy,  of  magnifying 
the  proportions  of  things,  of  confusing  surmises  with 
facts,  cannot  be  eradicated  without  long  and  careful 
discipline.  To  one  writer,  indeed,  those  dangers 
seemed  so  serious  that  he  solemnly  warned  the  Society 
for  Psychical  Research,  at  the  outset  of  its  career, 
against  the  risk  of  stimulating  into  disastrous  activity 
inborn  tendencies  to  superstition,  by  even  the  sem- 
blance of  an  inquiry  into  these  matters.  Without 
going  to  such  lengths,  it  may  be  conceded  to  the  critic 
that  even  with  those  who  endeavour  to  apply  scientific 
methods  to  the  investigation  the  mental  attitude  is 
liable  to  be  warped  by  the  environment,  and  that 
here,  as  elsewhere,  evil  communications  may  corrupt 


SPECIAL  GROUNDS  OF  CAUTION.  5 

As  regards  the  actual  investigators  this  difficulty  is 
growing  less  serious,  as  more  men  who  have  received 
their  training  in  other  branches  of  science  are  attracted 
to  the  inquiry,  and  as  the  affinities  of  the  subject  to 
long-recognised  departments  of  knowledge  become 
daily  more  apparent.  In  another  direction,  however, 
this  mental  attitude  presents  still  a  more  or  less  for- 
midable obstacle.  Many  of  the  observations  on  which 
students  of  the  subject  are  compelled  to  rely  are 
derived  from  persons  who  have  had  no  training  in 
such  habits  of  accuracy  as  are  required  in  scientific 
research.  When  accounts  of  the  ornithorhynchus 
first  reached  this  country  naturalists  laughed  at  the 
traveller's  tale  of  a  beast  with  the  tail  of  a  beaver  and 
the  bill  and  webbed  feet  of  a  duck.  In  the  same  way 
scientific  men  for  long  refused  to  admit  th$  existence  of 
aerolites,  as  they  now  decline  to  credit  the  reports  of 
a  Sea  Serpent  of  colossal  proportions.  In  all  these 
cases,  so  long  as  the  alleged  facts  rest  solely  on  the 
testimony  of  men  untrained  in  habits  of  close  observ- 
ation and  accurate  reporting,  a  suspension  of  judg- 
ment seems  to  be  justified.  And  if  these  considerations 
are  valid  in  ordinary  cases,  a  much  higher  degree  of 
caution  may  be  reasonably  demanded  of  investigators 
who  leave  the  neutral  ground  of  the  physical  sciences 
to  enter  upon  a  field  in  which  the  emotions  and 
sympathies  are  most  keenly  engaged,  and  in  which 
the  incidents  narrated  may  have  served  to  afford 
support  to  the  dearest  hopes  and  sanction  to  the 
deepest  convictions  of  the  narrator.  So  insidious,  in 
such  a  case,  is  the  work  of  the  imagination,  so 
untrustworthy  is  the  memory,  so  various  are  the 
sources  of  error  in  human  testimony,  that  it  may  be 
doubted  whether  we  should  be  justified  in  attaching 
weight  to  the  phenomena  of  telepathic  hallucination 
and  clairvoyance,  to  which  a  large  part  of  this  book  is 
devoted,  if  the  alleged  observations  were  incapable  of 
experimental  verification.  Certainly  in  such  a  case, 
though  the  recipient  of  an  experience  of  this  kind 


6     APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

might  cherish  a  private  conviction  of  its  significance, 
it  would  hardly  be  possible  for  such  a  view  to  win 
general  assent. 

In  fact,  however,  the  clue  to  the  interpretation  of 
the  more  striking  phenomena,  in  the  case  of  which, 
since  they  occur  for  the  most  part  spontaneously, 
direct  experiment  or  even  methodical  and  continuous 
observation  are  rarely  possible,  is  furnished  by  actual 
experiment  on  a  smaller  scale  and  with  mental  affec- 
tions of  a  less  unusual  kind.  The  thesis  which  these 
pages  are  designed  to  illustrate  and  support  is  briefly: 
that  communication  is  possible  between  mind  and  mind 
otherwise  than  through  the  known  channels  of  the  senses. 
Proof  of  the  existence  of  such  communication,  pro- 
visionally called  Thought  Transference  or  Telepathy 
(from  /£?2  =  at  a  distance,  and  pathos  —  feel  ing),  will 
be  found  in  a  considerable  mass  of  experiments 
conducted  during  the  last  twelve  years  by  various 
observers  in  different  European  countries  and  in 
America.  Before  proceeding,  in  the  course  of  the 
next  four  chapters,  to  examine  this  part  of  the  evidence 
in  detail,  it  will  be  well  to  consider  its  various  defects 
and  sources  of  error — defects  common  in  some  degree 
to  all  experiments  of  which  living  beings  are  the  sub- 
ject, and  sources  of  error  for  the  most  part  peculiar  to 
this  and  kindred  inquiries.  The  word  experiment  in 
this  connection  usually,  and  rightly,  suggests  the  most 
perfect  form  of  experiment,  that  in  which  all  the 
conditions  are  known,  and  in  which  the  results  can 
be  predicted  both  quantitatively  and  qualitatively. 
If,  for  instance,  we  add  a  certain  quantity  of  nitric 
acid  under  given  conditions  to  a  certain  quantity  of 
benzine,  we  know  that  there  will  result  a  certain 
quantity  of  a  third  substance  which  is  unlike  either  of 
its  constituents  in  taste,  smell,  and  physical  properties. 
Or  if  we  burn  a  given  quantity  of  coal  in  a  particular 
engine,  we  can  predict,  within  narrow  limits  of  error, 
the  total  amount  of  energy  which  will  be  evolved. 
That  we  cannot  in  the  second  instance  predict  with 


SPECIAL  GROUNDS  OF  CAUTION.  7 

absolute  accuracy  the  amount  of  energy  produced  is 
simply  due  to  the  difficulty  of  measuring  with  pre- 
cision all  the  factors  in  the  case.  But  when  we  leave 
the  problems  of  chemistry  and  physics  and  approach 
the  problems  of  biology,  the  difficulties  increase  a 
hundredfold.  Here  not  only  are  we  unable  to  measure 
the  various  factors,  we  cannot  even  name  them.  No 
skill  or  forethought  would  have  enabled  an  observer, 
from  however  patient  a  study  of  parentage  and  en- 
vironment, to  have  predicted  the  appearance,  say,  of 
Emanuel  Swedenborg  or  Michael  Faraday.  Of  the 
seven  children  of  John  Lamb  and  his  wife  it  might 
have  seemed  easier  to  conjecture  that  the  majority 
would  not  survive  childhood,  and  that  one  would 
become  insane,  than  that  another  should  take  his 
place  amongst  those  whose  writings  the  world  would 
not  willingly  let  die.  And  even  where,  as  in  most 
biological  researches,  the  results  drawn  from  observ- 
ation can  be  to  some  extent  checked  and  controlled 
by  direct  experiment,  generations  may  elapse 
before  the  balance  of  probabilities  on  one  side 
or  the  other  becomes  so  great  as  to  lead  to  unanimity 
amongst  the  inquirers.  One  of  the  most  interest- 
ing, and  certainly  not  the  least  important,  of  the 
questions  now  occupying  biologists,  is  that  of  the 
transmission  to  the  offspring  of  characters  acquired  in 
the  lifetime  of  the  individual.  Observations  have  been 
accumulated  on  the  subject  since  before  the  days  of 
Lamarck ;  and  these  observations,  interpreted  and 
confirmed  by  experiment,  have  been  adduced  and  are 
still  held  by  many  as  evidence  that  such  transmission 
occurs.  On  the  other  hand,  Weismann  and  his 
followers  contend  that  no  such  inference  can  legiti- 
mately be  drawn  from  the  observations  and  experi- 
ments quoted,  and  that  the  occurrence  of  such 
transmission  is  irreconcilable  with  what  is  known  of 
the  growth  and  development  of  the  germ.  And  for 
all  that  has  been  said  and  written  the  opinion  of  com- 
petent biologists  is  still  divided  upon  the  question. 


8    APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

But  in  many  biological  problems  the  conditions 
are  much  simpler,  and  the  questions  at  issue  can 
more  readily  be  brought  to  the  test  of  experiment. 
Yet  even  so  various  unknown  factors  are  included, 
and  the  results  obtained  are  correspondingly  difficult 
of  interpretation.  No  question  affects  us  more  nearly 
than  the  part  played  by  the  several  kinds  of  food  in 
repairing  the  daily  waste  of  the  human  body.  Sta- 
tistics and  analyses  have  been  collected  of  workhouse, 
prison,  and  military  dietaries ;  innumerable  experi- 
ments have  been  conducted  on  fasting  men  and  hyper- 
trophied  dogs  and  rabbits  ;  and  yet  the  precise  function 
of  nitrogenous  substances  in  nutrition  is  still  un- 
determined. Again,  the  import  of  the  experiments 
made  during  the  last  few  decades  by  Goltz,  Hitzig, 
Ferrier,  Horsley,  and  others  on  the  functions  of  various 
areas  of  the  brain  substance,  and  the  exact  nature 
and  degree  of  localisation  which  those  experiments 
imply,  are  still  matter  of  debate  amongst  the  physi- 
ologists concerned. 

To  take  yet  another  instance,  and  one  which  has  a 
more  intimate  bearing  upon  the  experiments  to  be 
discussed.  Some  years  ago  Dr.  Charlton  Bastian 
claimed  to  have  proved  experimentally  the  fact  of 
abiogenesis,  or  the  generation  of  living  organisms 
from  non-living  matter.  He  had  placed  various 
organic  infusions  in  glass  tubes,  which  were  heated 
to  the  boiling  point  and  then  hermetically  sealed. 
When  the  tubes  were,  after  a  certain  interval,  unsealed, 
the  contained  liquid  was  found  in  some  cases  to  be 
swarming  with  bacteria.  Believing  that  these  micro- 
organisms and  their  germs  were  invariably  destroyed 
by  the  heat  of  boiling  water,  Dr.  Bastian  saw  no  other 
conclusion  than  that  the  bacteria  were  formed  directly 
from  the  infusion.  His  conclusions  were  not  accepted 
by  the  scientific  world.  But  they  were  rejected,  not 
because  the  fact  of  abiogenesis  was  regarded  as  in 
itself  improbable,  nor  yet  because  Dr.  Bastian  was 
unable  to  indicate  by  what  steps  or  processes  the 


SPECIAL  GROUNDS  OF  CAUTION.  9 

transformation  of  an  infusion  of  hay  into  living 
organisms  of  definite  and  relatively  complex  structure 
could  be  conceived  to  take  place,  but  because 
Pasteur,  Tyndall,  and  others  showed  that  the  germs 
of  some  of  these  micro-organisms  are  capable  of 
sustaining  for  some  minutes  the  heat  of  boiling 
water ;  and  further,  that  when  elaborate  precautions 
were  taken,  by  filtering  and  otherwise  purifying  the 
air,  tubes  containing  similar  infusions  would  remain 
sterile  for  an  indefinite  period. 

The  conclusion  that  under  certain  conditions 
thought-transference  may  occur  rests  upon  reason- 
ing similar  to  that  by  which  Dr.  Bastian  sought  to 
establish  a  theory  of  abiogenesis.  Neither  the  organs 
by  which  nor  the  medium  through  which  the  com- 
munication is  made  can  be  indicated  ;  nor  can  we 
even,  with  a  few  trifling  exceptions,  point  to  the 
conditions  which  favour  such  communication.  But 
ignorance  on  these  points,  though  a  defect,  is  not  a 
defect  which  in  the  present  state  of  experimental 
psychology  can  be  held  seriously  to  weaken  the 
evidence,  much  less  to  invalidate  the  conclusion. 
That  conclusion  rests  on  the  elimination  of  all  other 
possible  causes  for  the  effect  produced.  But  at  this 
point  the  analogy  between  the  two  researches  fails. 
Dr.  Bastian's  conjecture  was  based  on  a  short  series 
of  experiments  conducted  by  a  single  experimenter 
under  one  uniform  set  of  conditions.  At  the  first 
breath  of  criticism  the  whole  fabric  collapsed.  The 
experiments  here  recorded  represent  the  work  of 
many  observers  in  many  countries,  carried  on  with 
different  subjects  under  a  great  variety  of  conditions. 
The  results  have  been  before  the  world  for  about 
twelve  years,  and  during  that  period  have  been 
subjected  to  much  adverse  and  some  instructive 
criticism.  But  no  alternative  explanation  which  has 
yet  been  suggested  has  attained  even  a  momentary 
plausibility. 

Whether  the  elimination  of  all  other  possible  causes 


10    APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

is  indeed  complete,  or  whether,  as  in  Dr.  Bastian's 
case,  there  may  yet  lurk  in  these  experiments  some 
hitherto  unsuspected  source  of  error,  the  reader  will 
have  the  opportunity  of  judging  for  himself.  To 
assist  him  in  forming  a  judgment  some  of  the  main 
disturbing  causes  will  be  briefly  indicated. 

(i)  Fraud. — In  nearly  all  the  experiments  referred 
to  in  this  book  the  agent  was  himself  concerned  in 
the  inquiry  as  a  matter  of  scientific  interest.  But  it 
necessarily  happens  on  occasion  that  neither  agent  nor 
percipient  are  by  education  and  position  absolutely 
removed  from  suspicion  of  trickery  in  a  matter 
where  trickery  might  to  imperfectly  educated  persons 
appear  almost  venial.  If  any  such  cases  have  been 
admitted,  it  is  because  the  precautions  taken  appear 
to  Ms  to  have  been  adequate.  At  the  same  time,  the 
investigators  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research 
have  come  across  some  instances  of  fraud  in  cases 
where  they  had  grounds  for  assuming  good  faith,  and 
it  may  be  useful,  therefore,  to  illustrate  some  of  the 
less  obvious  methods  of  acquiring  intelligence  fraudu- 
lently. The  conditions  of  the  experiment  should  of 
course,  as  far  as  possible,  preclude,  even  where  there 
is  no  ground  for  suspecting  fraud,  communication 
between  the  percipient  and  the  agent,  or  any  one  else 
knowing  the  idea  which  it  is  sought  to  transfer. 

In  the  autumn  of  1888  some  experiments  were 
conducted  with  a  person  named  D.,  whose  antecedents 
afforded,  it  was  thought,  justification  for  the  belief  that 
the  claims  which  he  put  forward  were  genuine.  D. 
acted  as  agent,  the  percipient  being  a  subject  of  his 
own,  a  young  woman  called  Miss  N.,  who  was  appar- 
ently in  a  light  hypnotic  sleep  during  the  experiment. 
It  was  soon  discovered  that  the  results  were  obtained 
by  means  of  a  code  formed  from  a  combination  of 
Miss  N.'s  breathing  with  slight  noises — a  cough  or  the 
creak  of  a  boot — made  by  D.  himself.  I  have  seen  a 
somewhat  similar  code  employed  in  Prince's  Hall, 
Piccadilly,  where  the  conjurer  stood  in  the  middle  of 


SPECIAL  GROUNDS  OF   CAUTION.  II 

the  hall  with  a  coin  or  other  object  in  his  hand, 
a  description  of  which  he  communicated  to  his 
confederate  on  the  platform  by  means  of  a  series  of 
breathings,  deep  enough  visibly  to  move  his  dress- 
coat  up  and  down  on  the  surface  of  his  white  collar, 
punctuated  by  slight  movements  of  head  or  hand. 
The  novel  feature  in  the  first  case,  however,  was  that 
the  percipient  herself  furnished  the  groundwork  of 
the  code,  the  punctuation  alone  being  given  by  the 
conjurer.  A  still  more  elaborate  form  of  collusion  is 
described  at  length  by  Bonjean.1  In  this  case  the 
subject,  a  young  woman  named  Lully,  appears  to  have 
read  the  words  to  be  conveyed  after  the  fashion  of  a 
deaf  mute,  by  the  motion  of  the  lips  of  the  showman. 
Lully  was  apparently  in  a  hypnotic  trance,  with  the 
eyes  fast  closed.  Another  form  of  fraud,  since  it  does 
not  require  the  aid  of  a  confederate,  is  perhaps  worthy 
of  note.  Some  years  ago  a  young  Australian  came 
to  this  country  with  a  reputation  for  "genuine  thought- 
reading,"  based  on  the  successful  mystification  of  some 
members  of  a  certain  Colonial  Legislature.  The 
writer  had  a  few  experiments  with  this  person,  in 
which  several  small  objects — a  knife,  a  glass  bottle, 
etc. — placed  in  the  full  light  of  a  shaded  lamp,  were 
correctly  named.  The  object  was  in  each  case  placed 
behind  the  back  of  the  "  Thought-reader,"  who  looked 
intently  at  the  writer's  eyes,  which  were  in  turn  fixed 
upon  the  brightly  illuminated  object.  Experiments 
made  under  more  usual  conditions,  not  dictated  by 
the  "  Thought-reader,"  completely  failed  ;  and  there 
can  be  little  doubt  that  the  initial  successes- were  due 
to  the  "Thought-reader"  seeing  the  image  of  the 
object  reflected  in  the  agent's  cornea. 

(2)  Hypercesthesia. — But,  after  all,  it  is  rarely  neces- 
sary to  take  special  precautions  against  fraud,  for 
there  are  dangers  to  be  guarded  against  of  a  more 
subtle  kind.  There  are  various,  and  as  yet  imperfectly 

1  UHypnotisme  ct  la  suggestion  mcntale.    Germer  Bailli&re  et  Cie. 
Paris,  pp.  261-316. 


12    APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

known  methods  of  communication  by  which  indica- 
tions may  be  unconsciously  given  and  as  uncon- 
sciously received.  Thus,  to  take  the  last  instance,  it 
is  pretty  certain  that  cornea-reading  does  not  always 
imply  fraud,  and  that  hints  may  be  gained  in  all  good 
faith  from  any  reflecting  surface  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  the  experimenter ;  or  the  movements  of 
lips,  larynx,  and  even  hands  and  limbs  may  betray 
the  secret  to  eye  or  ear.  We  know  little  of  the  limits 
of  our  sensory  powers  even  in  normal  life  ;  and  we 
do  know  that  in  certain  subconscious  states — auto- 
matic, hypnotic,  somnambulic — these  limits  may  be 
greatly  exceeded,  and  that  indications  so  subtle  as 
frequently  to  escape  the  vigilance  of  trained  observers 
may  be  seized  and  interpreted  by  the  hypnotic  or 
automatic  subject.  It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  results 
which  it  is  possible  to  attribute  to  deliberate  fraud 
stand  almost  necessarily  self-condemned.  For  if  the 
precautions  taken  by  the  investigators  left  such  an 
explanation  open,  much  more  were  those  precautions 
insufficient  to  guard  against  the  subtler  modes  of 
communication  referred  to.  It  is  not  the  friend  whom 
we  know  whose  eyes  must  be  closed  and  his  ears 
muffled,  but  the  "  Mr.  Hyde,"  whose  lurking  presence 
In  each  of  us  we  are  only  now  beginning  to  suspect. 

There  is  a  case  recorded  by  M.  Bergson,1  in  which 
a  hypnotised  boy  is  said  to  have  been  able  to  state 
correctly  the  number  of  the  page  in  a  book  held  by 
the  observer,  by  reading  the  corneal  image  of  the 
figures.  The  actual  figures  were  three  millimetres 
high,  and  their  corneal  image  is  calculated  by  M. 
Bergson  to  have  been  o.i  mm.,  or  about  ^^  of  an  inch 
in  height !  In  some  other  experiments  conducted  by 
M.  Bergson  with  the  same  subject  the  acuteness  of 
vision  is  said  to  have  exceeded  even  this  limit.  In 
another  case,  recorded  by  Dr.  Sauvaire,2  a  hypnotised 

1  Revue  Philosophique,  Nov.    1887,  quoted  in  Proceedings  of  the 
Soc.  Psych.  Research,  vol.  iv.  p.  532. 
8  Revue  Philosophique^  March  1887. 


SPECIAL  GROUNDS  OF  CAUTION.  13 

subject  was  able  to  recognise  the  King  of  Clubs,  face 
downwards,  in  two  different  packs  of  cards.  In  the 
first  of  these  cases  the  results,  which  could  not  have 
been,  attained  by  the  senses  under  normal  conditions, 
must  apparently  be  attributed  to  hyperaesthesia. 
Instances,  especially  of  auditory  hyperaesthesia,  are  of 
course  quite  familiar  to  those  who  have  studied  the 
phenomena  of  hypnotism.  In  Dr.  Sauvaire's  case, 
however,  the  power  of  distinguishing  the  cards  by 
touch  may  have  been  the  result  of  practice.  Mrs. 
Verrall  records  {Proceedings  Soc.  Psych.  Research, 
vol.  viii.  p.  480)  that  she  acquired  such  a  power  by 
means  of  "a  longish  series  of  experiments";  and  Mr. 
Hudson,  in  Idle  Days  in  Patagonia^  tells  of  a  gambler 
who  by  careful  training  had  developed  the  same 
faculty  in  a  very  high  degree. 

It  seems  probable  in  the  cases  described  by  M. 
Bergson  and  Dr.  Sauvaire,  and  possible  also  in  the 
case  of  Mr.  D.'s  subject,  that  there  was  no  intentional 
deception,  and  that  the  hypnotised  person  was  not 
himself  aware  of  the  means  by  which  his  knowledge 
was  attained.1  The  same  remark  probably  applies  to 
the  following  case,  in  which,  though  the  conditions  of 
vision  were  certainly  unusual,  it  seems  not  clear 
whether  the  degree  of  success  attained  should  be 
attributed  to  abnormal  sensibility  of  the  eyes,  or  to 
the  facility  acquired  by  long  practice.  In  a  series  of 
experiments  at  which  the  writer  assisted,  in  1884,  an 
illiterate  youth  named  Dick  was  hypnotised,  a  penny 
was  placed  over  each  eye,  and  the  eyes  and  surround- 
ing features  were  elaborately  bandaged  with  strips  of 
sticking-plaster  ;  a  handkerchief  being  bound  over  all. 
Under  these  conditions  Dick  named  correctly  objects 
held  in  front  of  him,  even  at  a  considerable  distance, 
a  little  above  the  level  of  his  eyes.  Normal  vision 
appeared  to  be  impossible.  Mr.  R.  Hodgson,  how- 

1  Mrs.  Verrall  states  that  after  long  practice  she  "  lost  all  conscious- 
ness of  the  means  which  enabled  her  to  guess,  and  saw  pictures  of  the 
cards." 


14    APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

ever,  repeated  the  experiment  upon  himself,  and 
found  after  several  trials  that  he  also  could  see 
objects,  though  fitfully  and  imperfectly,  under  the 
same  conditions,  the  channel  of  vision  being  a  small 
chink  in  the  sticking-plaster  on  the  line  where  it  was 
fastened  to  the  brow. 

(3)  Muscle-reading. — From  this  last  case  we  may 
pass  to  the  illustrations  of  "thought-reading"  given 
by  professional  conjurers  and  others,  where  it  seems 
clear  that  the  skill  exhibited  in  the  interpretation  of 
unconscious  movements  and  gestures  is  due  rather 
to  long  practice  and  careful  observation  than  to  any 
abnormal  extension  of  faculty.  It  hardly  needs 
saying  that  experiments  in  which  contact  is  per- 
mitted between  the  agent  and  percipient  can  rarely 
be  regarded  as  having  evidential  value.  It  has  been 
demonstrated  again  and  again  that  with  the  fullest 
intention  of  keeping  the  secret  to  themselves,  most 
"  agents  "  in  such  circumstances  are  practically  certain 
to  betray  it  to  the  professional  thought-reader  by 
unconscious  movements  of  some  kind.  Indeed,  it  is 
difficult  to  place  any  limit  to  the  degree  of  sus- 
ceptibility to  slight  muscular  impressions  which  may 
be  attained.  A  careful  experimenter  has  assured  the 
writer  that  when  acting  as  percipient  in  some  experi- 
ments with  diagrams  the  slight  movements  of  the 
agent's  hand  resting  upon  her  head  gave  her  in  one 
case  a  clue  to  the  figure  thought  of.  And  Mr.  Stuart 
Cumberland  has  exhibited  feats  still  more  marvellous 
before  kings  and  commoners.  Nor  is  it  necessary, 
as  already  said,  for  successful  muscle-reading  that 
there  should  be  actual  contact  in  all  cases.  The  eye 
or  the  ear  can  sometimes  follow  movements  of  the 
lips  or  other  parts  of  the  body.  But  though  we  can 
look  for  little  evidence  from  experiments  conducted 
with  contact,  or  under  conditions  which  allow  of 
interpretation  by  gesture,  etc.,  and  their  repetition  in 
this  connection  can  rarely  be  expected  to  serve  any 
useful  purpose,  it  seems  worth  pointing  out  that,  if 


SPECIAL  GROUNDS  OF  CAUTION.  1$ 

telepathy  is  a  fact,  we  should  expect  to  find  it  oper- 
ating not  merely  where,  from  the  conditions  of  the 
experiment,  it  must  be  presumed  to  be  the  sole  source 
of  communication,  but  also  as  an  auxiliary  to  other 
more  familiar  modes  of  expression.  It  seems  not 
improbable,  therefore,  that  some  of  the  more  startling 
successes  of  the  professional  "  thought-reader "  and 
some  of  the  results  obtained  in  the  "  willing  game " 
may  be  due  to  this  cause. 

(4)  Thought  -  forms. — There  remains  one  other 
source  of  error  to  be  guarded  against.  An  image — 
whether  of  an  object,  diagram,  or  name — which  is 
chosen  by  the  agent  may  be  correctly  described  by 
the  percipient  simply  because  their  minds  are  set 
to  move  in  the  same  direction.  It  must  be  remem- 
bered that,  however  unexpected  and  spontaneous 
they  may  appear,  ideas  do  not  come  by  chance,  but 
have  their  origin  mostly  in  the  previous  experience  of 
the  thinker.  Persons  living  constantly  in  the  same 
physical  and  intellectual  environment  are  apt  to 
present  a  close  similarity  in  their  ideas.  It  would  not 
even  be  prima  facie  evidence  of  thought-transference, 
for  instance,  if  husband  and  wife,  asked  to  think  of  a 
town  or  of  an  acquaintance,  should  select  the  same 
name.  And  investigation  has  shown  that  our 
thoughts  move  in  grooves  which  are  determined 
for  us  by  causes  more  deep-seated  and  more  general 
than  the  accident  of  particular  circumstances.  Thus 
it  is  found  that  individuals  will  show  a  preference  for 
certain  figures  or  certain  numbers  over  others ;  and 
that  the  preference  for  some  geometrical  figures  tends 
to  be  tolerably  constant.  The  American  Society  for 
Psychical  Research 1  made  some  interesting  observa- 
tions on  this  point  in  1888.  Blank  cards  were 
issued  to  a  large  number  of  persons,  with  the  request 
that  the  recipients  would  draw  on  the  card  "ten 
diagrams."  501  cards  were  returned,  and  the  diagrams 
inscribed  on  them  were  carefully  tabulated.  It  was 
1  Proceedings  of  the  American  Soc.  Psych.  Research^  pp.  302  et  seq. 


16    APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

found  that  of  the  501  persons  no  less  than  209  drew 
circles,  174  squares,  160  equilateral  triangles  and 
crosses,  while  three  only  drew  wheels,  two  candle- 
sticks, and  one  each  a  corkscrew,  a  ball,  and  a  knife. 
It  was  found  that  the  simpler  geometrical  figures1 
occurred  not  only  most  frequently  but  as  a  general 
rule  early  in  each  series  of  ten.  It  follows,  therefore, 
that  in  an  experiment  the  success  of  the  percipient 
in  reproducing  a  circle,  a  square,  or  a  triangle  raises 
a  much  fainter  presumption  of  thought-transference 
than  if  the  object  reproduced  had  been  a  corkscrew 
or  a  pine-apple.  But  so  much  was  perhaps  obvious 
even  without  a  detailed  investigation.  From  a 
similar  analysis  of  the  guesses  made,  it  can  be 
shown  that  some  percipients  have  decided  preferences 
amongst  the  simple  numerals.  And  in  the  same  way 
it  seems  probable  that  others  have  a  preference  for 
particular  cards.  An  important  illustration  of  the 
working  of  the  "number-habit"  has  been  brought 
forward  by  Professor  E.  C.  Pickering  of  the  Harvard 
College  Observatory,  U.S.A.2  A  revision  of  part  of 
the  Argelander  Star-Chart  had  been  undertaken 
by  several  observatories,  of  which  the  Harvard  Obser- 
vatory was  one.  For  the  purposes  of  the  revision  the 
assistant  had  the  Argelander  chart  before  him,  whilst 
the  observer,  who  was  in  ignorance  of  the  magnitude 
assigned  in  the  chart,  made  an  independent  estimate 
of  the  magnitude  of  each  star.  If  no  thought-trans- 
ference or  other  disturbing  cause  affected  the  result, 
the  amount  of  deviation  of  the  later  observations 
from  the  earlier  in  each  tenth  of  a  degree  of  magni- 
tude would  be  represented  by  a  smooth  curve.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  it  was  found  that  the  number  of  cases 

1  No  doubt  the  great  preponderance  of  geometrical  figures  is  in  some 
measure  due  to  the  use  of  the  word  (t diagram,"  which  in  English 
would  probably  suggest  to  most  persons  a  geometrical  diagram.  But 
possibly  the  word  has  a  different  shade  of  meaning  in  American.  It  is 
certain  too  that  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  persons  who  rilled  in 
the  cards  were  acquainted  with  the  object  of  the  inquiry. 

a  Proc.  American  Soc.  Psych.  Research,  pp.  35-43. 


SPECIAL  GROUNDS  OF  CAUTION.  IJ 

of  complete  agreement  were  much  greater,  with  some 
observers  more  than  50  per  cent,  greater,  than  they 
should  have  been  on  an  estimate  of  the  probabilities. 
At  first  sight  this  excess  of  the  actual  over  the 
theoretical  numbers  suggested  the  action  of  thought- 
transference  between  the  assistant  and  the  observer. 
But  Professor  Pickering  shows,  on  a  further  analysis 
of  the  figures,  that  almost  the  whole  of  the  excess  was 
due  to  the  preference  of  both  the  earlier  and  the 
later  observers  for  5  and  10  over  all  other  fractions  of 
a  degree. 

The  practical  deduction  from  this  investigation  is 
that  in  any  experiment  care  should  be  taken  to 
exclude,  as  regards  the  agent  at  any  rate,  the  opera- 
tion of  any  diagram  or  number-habit.1  If  an  object 
is  thought  of,  it  should  if  possible  be  chosen  by  lot, 
and  should  not  be  an  object  actually  present  in  the 
room.  If  a  card,  it  should  be  drawn  from  the  pack 
at  random  ;  if  a  number,  from  a  receptacle  containing 
a  definite  series  of  numbers  ;  if  a  diagram,  it  is  pre- 
ferable that  it  should  be  taken  at  random  from  a  set 
of  previously-prepared  drawings.  It  will  be  seen  that 
in  the  majority  of  the  cases  quoted  in  the  four 
succeeding  chapters  these  precautions  have  been 
observed. 

1  It  is  not  possible  to  eliminate  the  operation  of  such  preferences  in 
the  percipient.  But  if  care  be  taken  that  the  series  of  things  to  be 
guessed  is  chosen  arbitrarily,  the  only  effect  of  even  a  decided  prefer- 
ence for  particular  cards,  numbers,  etc.,  on  the  part  of  the  percipient 
will  be  to  lessen  the  number  of  coincidences  due  to  thought-transference. 


CHAPTER  II. 

EXPERIMENTAL     TRANSFERENCE    OF     SIMPLE    SEN- 
SATIONS IN   THE   NORMAL  STATE. 

IT  is  somewhat  remarkable  that  the  facts  of  thought- 
transference  should  only  have  attracted  serious  atten- 
tion within  the  last  two  decades.  With  waking 
percipients,  indeed,  such  phenomena  do  not  seem  to 
occur  unsought  with  sufficient  frequency,  or — if  we 
leave  on  one  side  for  the  moment  telepathic  hallu- 
cinations— on  a  sufficiently  striking  scale  to  afford 
evidence  of  any  transmission  of  thought  or  sensation 
otherwise  than  through  the  familiar  channels.  But 
the  hypnotic  state  appears  to  offer  peculiar  facilities 
for  such  transmission,  and  hypnotism,  under  the  name 
of  mesmerism,  has  now  been  closely  studied  by 
numerous  observers  for  upwards  of  a  century.  The 
earlier  French  observers,1  indeed,  occasionally  recorded 
instances  of  what  appears  to  have  been  thought- 
transference  between  the  mesmerist  and  his  subject. 
But  these  facts  were  observed  by  the  way,  in  the 
search  for  phenomena  of  another  kind ;  and  no 
attempt  appears  to  have  been  made  to  follow  up  the 
clue  by  means  of  direct  experiment.  Even  the 
English  observers  of  1840  and  onwards,  though 
familiar  with  what  they  termed  "community  of 
sensation"  between  the  operator  and  his  subject, 

1  See,  for  instance,  Puyse'gur,  Memoires  pour  servir  h  FtiabUssc- 
ment  du  magnetisme,  pp.  22,  29  et  seq.>  and  Pe'te'tin,  Electricitl 
Animate^  p.  127,  etc.  (quoted  by  Dr.  Qchorowicz,  DC  la  Suggestion 
wentale). 


TRANSFERENCE  IN   NORMAL  STATE.  ig 

appear  never  to  have  realised  its  possible  significance. 
Dr.  Elliotson,  for  instance,  describes  in  the  Zoist  (vol. 
v.  pp.  242-245)  some  experiments  in  which  a  lady, 
mesmerised  by  himself,  was  able  to  indicate  correctly 
the  taste  of  salt,  cinnamon,  sugar,  ginger,  water,  and 
pepper,  as  Dr.  Elliotson  placed  successively  these 
various  substances  in  his  mouth.  But  he  seems  to  have 
recorded  the  results  chiefly  from  curiosity,  and  to  have 
regarded  them  as  of  little  scientific  interest  compared 
with  the  stiffening  of  a  limb,  or  the  painless  perform- 
ance of  an  operation  under  mesmeric  anaesthesia. 
Dr.  Esdaile  (Practical  Mesmerism,  p.  125),  Mr.  C. 
H.  Townshend  (Facts  in  Mesmerism,  pp.  68,  72,  76, 
etc.,  etc.),  Professor  Gregory  (Animal  Magnetism,  p. 
231),  and  other  writers  of  that  time,  record  similar 
observations.  But  the  subject  seems  to  have  been 
crowded  out,  on  the  one  hand,  with  the  more  cautious 
observers,  by  the  growing  importance  of  hypnotism 
as  an  anaesthetic  and  a  curative  agency,  on  the  other 
by  the  greater  marvels  of  "  clairvoyance  "  and  "  spirit " 
communications. 

It  was  Professor  Barrett,  of  the  Royal  College  of 
Science,  Dublin,  who,  in  a  paper  read  before  the 
British  Association  at  Glasgow  in  1 876,  first  isolated 
the  phenomenon  from  its  somewhat  dubious  surround- 
ings, and  drew  public  attention  to  its  importance.  Up 
to  that  time  "community  of  sensation"  or  thought- 
transference  seems  to  have  been  known  only  as  a  rare 
and  fitful  accompaniment  of  the  hypnotic  trance.  But 
in  the  course  of  the  correspondence  arising  out  of  his 
paper  Professor  Barrett  learnt  of  several  instances 
where  similar  phenomena  had  been  observed  in  the 
waking  state.  The  Willing  game  was  just  then 
coming  into  fashion,  and  cases  had  been  observed  in 
which  the  thing  willed  had  been  performed  without 
contact  between  the  performer  and  the  person  willing, 
and  apparently  without  the  possibility  of  any  normal 
means  of  communication  between  them.  Later,  in 
the  years  1881-82,  a  long  series  of  experiments,  in 


20    APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

which  Professor  Sidgwick,  the  late  Professor  Balfour 
Stewart,  the  late  Edmund  Gurney,  Mr.  F.  W.  H. 
Myers  and  others  joined  with  Professor  Barrett, 
seemed  to  establish  the  possibility  of  a  new  mode  of 
communication.  And  these  earlier  results  have  been 
confirmed  by  further  experiments  continued  down  to 
the  present  time  by  many  observers  both  in  this 
country  and  abroad.  In  the  present  chapter  some 
account  will  be  given  of  experiments  in  the  transfer- 
ence of  simple  ideas  and  sensations  performed  with 
percipients  in  the  ordinary  waking  state.  The  next 
chapter  will  deal  with  similar  results  obtained  with 
hypnotised  persons.  In  Chapters  IV.  and  V.  results 
of  a  more  complicated  or  unusual  character  will  be 
described  and  discussed. 

Transference  of  Tastes. 

The  particular  form  of  telepathy  which  first  attracted 
attention  to  the  whole  subject,  the  transmission  to  the 
percipient  of  impressions  of  taste  and  pain  experienced 
by  the  agent,  appears  to  have  been  observed  in  the 
normal  state  very  rarely.  One  such  case  may  be 
here  quoted.  In  the  years  1883-85  Mr.  Malcolm 
Guthrie,  J.P.,  of  Liverpool,  the  then  head  of  a  large 
drapery  business  in  that  city,  conducted  a  long  scries 
of  experiments  with  two  of  his  employees,  Miss  E. 
and  Miss  R.  In  September  1883  Mr.  Guthrie,  Mr. 
Edmund  Gurney,  and  Mr.  Myers,  indicated  respec- 
tively by  the  initials  M.  G.,  E.  G.,  and  M.,  had  a  series 
of  trials  with  these  percipients  in  the  transference  of 
tastes.  The  percipients,  who  were  fully  awake,  were 
blindfolded  ;  the  packets  or  bottles  containing  the 
substances  experimented  upon  were  placed  beyond 
the  range  of  possible  vision ;  and  in  the  case  of 
strongly  smelling  substances,  either  at  a  distance  or 
outside  the  room ;  and  other  precautions  were  taken 
by  the  agents,  -by  keeping  the  mouth  closed  •  and 
turning  the  head  away,  etc.,  in  order  that  the  per- 


TRANSFERENCE   IN    NORMAL  STATE.  21 

cipients  should  not  become  aware  by  the  sense  of 
smell  of  the  nature  of  the  substance  experimented 
with.  Strict  silence  was  of  course  observed.  It  may 
be  conceded  that  when  all  possible  precautions  are 
taken,  experiments  with  sapid  substances  must  be 
inconclusive  when  the  agent  is  in  the  same  room  with 
the  percipient ;  since  nearly  all  such  substances  have 
an  odour,  however  faint.  In  view,  however,  of  the  ex- 
treme sensibility  already  demonstrated  (see  below,  pp. 
23,  etc.)  of  these  particular  percipients  to  transferred 
impressions  of  other  kinds,  it  seems  probable  that  the 
results  in  this  case  also  were  actually  due  to  telepathy. 
The  alternative  explanation  is  to  attribute  to  persons 
in  the  normal  waking  state  a  degree  of  hypcraesthesia 
for  which  we  have  no  exact  parallel  even  in  the  records 
of  hypnotism.  For  to  persons  of  normal  susceptibility 
the  odour  of  a  small  quantity,  e.g.  of  salt  or  alum,  in 
the  mouth  of  another  person  at  a  distance  of  two  or 
three  feet  would  certainly  be  quite  inappreciable. 

No.    I.— By  MR.   GUTIIRIE  AND  OTHERS. 
September  3,  1883. 

EXPT.     TASTER.     PERCIPIENT.     SUBSTANCE.  ANSWERS  GIVEN. 

1  ..  M E Vinegar  "A  sharp  and  nasty  taste." 

2  ..  M K Mustard "Mustard." 

3  ..  M 11 Do "Ammonia." 

4  . .  M E Sugar "I  still  taste  the  hot  taste  of 

the  mustard." 

September  4. 

6  ..  E.  G.  &M...  E Worcestershire  sauce  "  Worcestershire  sauce." 

6  ..  M.  G K Do.  "Vinegar." 

7  ..  E.  G.  &M...  E Portwine "  Between  eau  de  Cologne  and 

beer." 

8  ..  M  G R Do "  Raspberry  vinegar." 

9  ,.  K.  G.  &M...  K Bitter  aloes "  Horrible  and  bitter." 

10  ..  M.  G II Alum "A  taste  of  ink—of  iron-of 

vinegar.  I  feel  it  on  my 
lips— it  is  as  if  I  had  been 
eating  alum." 

11  ..  M.  G E Alinn (E.  perceived  that  M.  G.  was 

not  tasting  bitter  aloes,  as 
E.  G.  and  M.  supposed, 
but  something  different. 
No  distinct  perception  on 
account  of  the  persistence 
of  the  bitter  taste.) 


22    APPARITIONS  AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

EXPT.     TASTER.     PERCIPIENT.     SUBSTANCE.  ANSWERS  GIVEN. 

12  ..  E.  G.  &M...  E  .....  Nutmeg  .............  "Peppeimint—  no—  what  you 

put    in    puddings  —  nut- 
meg. " 

13  ..  M.  G  .......  R  .....        Do  ..............  "Nutmeg." 

14  ..  E.  G.  &M...  E  .....  Sugar  ................  Nothing  perceived. 

15  ..  M.  G  .......  R  .....     Do  .................  Nothing  perceived. 

(Sugar  should  be  tried  at  an 
earlier  stage  in  the  series, 
as,    after   the  aloes,   we 
could    scarcely    taste   it 
ourselves.) 
10  ..  E.  G.  &  M.  ..  E  .....  Cayenne  pepper  ......  "Mustard." 

17  ..  M.  G  .......  11  .....  Do.          ......  "Cayenne  pepper." 

(After  the  cayenne  we  were 
unable  to  taste  anything 
further  that  evening.) 

Throughout  the  next  series  of  experiments  the  sub- 
stances were  kept  outside  the  room  in  which  the 
percipients  were  seated. 

September  5. 


18 
19 

..  E.  G.  &M... 
.  .  M.  G  

E  
R  

Carbonate  of  Soda.  . 
Caraway  seeds  

,  .  Nothing  perceived. 
"It  feels    like   meal—  like   a 

seed  loaf—  carawayseeds." 

(The  substance  of   the   seeds 

seems  to  be  perceived  be- 

fore  their  taste.) 

20 

.  .  E.  G.  &  M.  .  . 

E  

Cloves  

"Cloves." 

21 
22 

.  .  E.  G.  &  M.  .  . 
.  .  M.  G  

E  
R  

Citric  acid  
Do  

,  .  Nothing  felt. 

23 

.  .  E.  G.  &  M.  .  . 

E  

Liquorice  

!'.  "Cloves." 

24 

.  .  M.  G  

R  

Cloves  , 

"Cinnamon." 

25 

.  .  E.  G.  &  M.  .  . 

E  

Acid  jujube  

,  ,   "Pear  drop." 

26 

..  M.G  

R  

Do.        

"Something   hard,  which  is 

giving  way—  acid  jujube." 

27 
28 

..  E.G.  &M... 
..  M.G  

E  
R  

Candied  ginger. 
Do.            

,  .  "  Something  sweet  and  hot." 
,  .  "  Almond  toffy." 

(M.  G.  took  this  ginger  in  the 

dark,  and  was  some  time 

before  he  realised  that  it 

was  ginger.) 

29 

..  E.G.  AM... 

E  

Home-made  Noyau 

..  "Salt." 

30 

..  M.G  

R  

Do. 

,.  "Port  wine." 

(This  was    by  far   the   most 

strongly   smelling  of  the 
substances  tried;  the  scent 

of  kernels  being  hard  to 

conceal.  Yet  it  was  named 

by  E.  as  salt.) 

31 

..  E.  G.  &M... 

E  

Bitter  aloes  

.,  "Bitter." 

32 

..  M.G  

R  

Do  

,.  Nothing  felt. 

(Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  vol.  ii.  pp.  3,  4.) 

Further  experiments  in  this  direction  are  much  to 
be  desired.  But  apart  from  the  difficulty  above  re- 
ferred to,  experiments  of  the  kind  are  liable  to  be 


TRANSFERENCE  IN   NORMAL  STATE.  23 

tedious  and  inconclusive  because  of  the  inability  of 
most  persons  to  discriminate  accurately  between  one 
taste  and  another,  when  the  guidance  of  all  other 
senses  is  lacking.  To  conduct  such  experiments  to  a 
successful  issue,  it  would  probably  be  necessary  that 
the  percipients  should  have  some  preliminary  training 
to  enable  them  to  distinguish  by  taste  alone  between 
various  salts  and  pharmaceutical  preparations. 

Transference  of  Pains. 

Experiments  in  the  transference  of  pains  arejjlot  at- 
tended with  the  same  difficulties,  nor  open  to  the  same 
evidential  objections ;  and  some  interesting  trials  of 
this  kind  with  one  of  the  same  percipients,  Miss  R., 
met  with  a  fair  amount  of  success.  The  experiments 
were  carried  on  at  intervals,  interspersed  with  experi- 
ments of  other  kinds,  by  Mr.  Guthrie  at  Liverpool 
during  nine  months  in  1884  and  1885.  The  per- 
cipient on  each  occasion  was  blindfolded  and  seated 
with  her  back  towards  the  rest  of  the  party,  who  each 
pinched  or  otherwise  injured  themselves  in  the  same 
part  of  the  body  at  the  same  time.  The  agents  in 
these  experiments — the  whole  series  of  which  is  here 
recorded — were  three  or  more  of  the  following  : — Mr. 
Guthrie,  Professor  Herdman,  Dr.  Hicks,  Dr.  Hyla 
Greves,  Mr,  R.  C  Johnson,  F.R.A.S.,  Mr.  Birchall, 
Miss  Redmond,  and  on  one  occasion  another  lady. 
The  results  are  given  in  the. following  table : — 

No.  2.— By  MR.  GUTHRIE  AND  OTHERS. 

I.— Back  of  left  hand  pricked.     Rightly  localised. 

2.— Lobe  of  left  ear  pricked.     Rightly  localised. 

3.— Left  wrist  pricked.     "Is  it  in  the  left  hand?"  pointing  to 

the  back  near  the  little  finger. 
4.— Third  finger  of  left  hand  tightly  bound  round  with  wire. 

A  lower  joint  of  that  finger  was  guessed. 
5.  —Left  wrist  scratched  with  pins.    "  Is  it  in  the  left  wrist,  like 

being  scratched  ? " 
6.— Left  ankle  pricked.     Rightly  localised 


24    APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

7.— Spot  behind  left  ear  pricked.     No  result. 
8. — Right  knee  pricked.     Rightly  localised. 
9. — Right  shoulder  pricked.     Rightly  localised. 

10. — Hands  burned  over  gas.  "  Like  a  pulling  pain  .  .  .  then 
tingling,  like  cold  and  hot  alternately,"  localised  by 
gesture  only. 

ii. — End  of  tongue  bitten.     "  Is  it  the  lip  or  the  tongue  ?" 

12. — Palm  of  left  hand  pricked.  "  Is  it  a  tingling  pain  in  the 
left  hand  here  ? "  placing  her  finger  on  the  palm  of 
the  left  hand. 

13. — Back  of  neck  pricked.     "  Is  it  a  pricking  of  the  neck  ?" 

14. — Front  of  left  arm  above  elbow  pricked.     Rightly  localised. 

15. — Spot  just  above  left  ankle  pricked.     Rightly  localised. 

1 6. — Spot  just  above  right  wrist  pricked.    "  I  am  not  quite  sure, 
%>ut  I  feel  a  pain  in  the  right  arm,  from  the  thumb  up- 
wards to  above  the  wrist." 

17. — Inside  of  left  ankle  pricked.     Outside  of  left  ankle  guessed. 

1 8. — Spot  beneath  right  collar-bone  pricked.  The  exactly  cor- 
responding spot  on  the  left  side  guessed. 

19. — Back  hair  pulled.     No  result. 

20. — Inside  of  right  wrist  pricked.     Right  foot  guessed. 

(Proc.  S.P.R.)  vol.  iii.  pp.  424-452.) 

Transference  of  Sounds. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  there  is  little  experimental 
evidence  for  the  transmission  of  an  auditory  impres- 
sion. Occasionally,  in  trials  with  names  and  cards 
the  nature  of  the  mistakes  made  has  seemed  to  in- 
dicate audition,  as  when,  e.g.,  three  is  given  for  Queen 
or  ace  for  eight.  But  obviously  a  long  series  of  ex- 
periments and  a  long  series  of  mistakes  would  be 
necessary  to  afford  material  for  any  conclusion. 
Sometimes  a  percipient  has  stated  that  he  heard 
the  name  of  the  thing  thought  of;  as,  for  instance,  in 
a  case  recorded  in  Chapter  V.,  where  the  percipient 
"heard"  the  word  gloves  before  "seeing"  a  vision  of 
them.  But  such  cases  appear  to  be  rare.  Experi- 
ments with  a  view  to  test  the  transmission  of  actual 
sounds  jould  of  course  only  be  carried  out  under 
special  conditions,  of  which  one  would  be  the  separa- 
tion of  the  agent  from  the  percipient  by  a  considerable 


TRANSFERENCE    IN   NORMAL  STATE.  2j 

intervening  space — and  this  condition  is,  of  itself, 
found  to  interfere  with  success.  Some  evidence, 
indeed,  of  a  quasi-experimental  character  for  the 
transference  of  musical  sounds  at  a  distance  will  be 
given  in  a  later  chapter  (Chapter  V.,  No.  33  )•  Ex- 
periments with  imagined  sounds  appear  to  have  been 
rarely  tried,  or  at  least,  successful  results  have  rarely 
been  recorded.1  Occasionally  indeed  experimenters 
have  put  on  record  that  in  thinking  of  an  object  they 
have  mentally  repeated  the  name  of  the  object  as  well 
as  pictured  the  object  itself,  and  there  are  a  few  cases 
where  the  general  idea  of  the  object  thought  of 
appears  to  have  reached  the  percipient  before  the 
outlines  of  the  form,  which  may  possibly  be  ex- 
plained as  due  to  the  reception  of  an  auditory  before 
a  visual  impression.2 

This  lack  of  evidence  for  auditory  transmission  is 
no  doubt  largely  due  to  a  desire  on  the  part  of 
experimenters  in  the  first  instance  to  make  the  proof 
of  actual  thought-transference  as  complete  as  possible. 
Experiments  with  sounds  would  impose  a  greater 
strain  upon  the  agents,  since  in  most  cases  they  must 
be  imagined  sounds.  Moreover,  in  such  experiments 
it  would  be  at  once  more  difficult  to  estimate  with 
precision  degrees  of  success,  and  to  preserve  a  per- 
manent record  of  the  result ;  and  finally,  the  subject 
thought  of  would  be  more  easily  communicated  either 
fraudulently,  by  a  code,  or  by  unconscious  indications 
on  the  part  of  the  agent  In  this  connection  it  is 
possibly  significant  that  whilst  in  morbid  conditions 
auditory  hallucinations  are  much  commoner  than 
visual,  the  proportion  appears  to  be  reversed  with 

1  Some  trials  were  made  by  Mr.  Guthrie  with  imagined  tunes.  But 
they  were  in  no  instance  successful  without  contact ;  and  as  obviously 
the  chances  of  unconscious  indications  being  given,  in  any  case  con- 
siderable where  tunes  are  in  question,  are  much  increased  by  contact, 
we  should  not  be  justified  in  regarding  successful  results,  under  such 
conditions,  as  even  ptima  facie  due  to  Thought-transference.  (See 
Proc.  S.P.A'.,  vol.  iii.  pp.  426,  447,  448.) 

8  See  below,  Chapter  III.— Mrs.  Sidgwick's  experiments. 


26    APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

telepathic  hallucinations.  It  seems  probable  that  the 
apparent  infrequency  of  auditory  transmission  may 
be  in  part  due  to  the  fact  that  in  the  modern  world 
the  sense  of  vision  is  for  educated  persons  the  habitual 
channel  for  precise  or  important  information.  To  the 
Greek  in  the  time  of  Socrates  no  doubt  the  ear  was 
the  main  avenue  for  all  knowledge;  it  was  the  ear  that 
received  not  merely  the  current  talk  of  the  market- 
place and  the  gymnasium,  but  the  oratory  of  the 
law-court,  the  literature  of  the  stage,  and  the  philo- 
sophy of  the  Schools.  But  for  modern  civilised 
societies  the  newspaper  and  the  libraries  have  placed 
the  eye  in  a  position  of  unquestioned  pre-eminence. 
It  seems  likely  therefore,  apart  from  all  defects  in 
such  evidence,  that  the  agent  would  find  a  greater 
difficulty,  as  a  rule,  in  calling  up  a  vivid  representation 
of  a  sound  than  of  a  vision ;  and  that  the  percipient 
would  experience  a  corresponding  difference  in  the 
reception  and  discrimination  of  the  two  classes  of 
impressions. 

Transference  of  Ideas  not  definitely  classed. 
Experiments  by  PROFESSOR  RlCHET  and  others. 

In  the  following  cases,  where  the  exact  nature  of 
the  impression  received  was  not  apparently  consciously 
classified  by  the  percipient,  it  may  be  presumed  to 
have  been  either  of  a  visual  or  an  auditory  nature. 
M.  Charles  Richet  (Revue  Philosophique,  Dec.  1884, 
"  La  suggestion  mentale  et  le  calcul  des  probability  ") 
conducted  a  series  of  experiments  in  guessing  the 
suits  of  cards  drawn  at  random  from  a  pack.  2927 
trials  were  made :  ten  persons  besides  M.  Richet 
himself — who  acted  sometimes  as  agent  and  some- 
times as  percipient — taking  part  in  the  experiments. 
In  the  2927  trials  the  suit  was  correctly  named  789 
times,  the  most  probable  number  of  correct  guesses 
being  732.  A  similar  series  of  trials  was  conducted, 


TRANSFERENCE   IN    NORMAL  STATE.  2/ 

on  Edmund  Gurney's  initiative,  by  some  members 
of  the  S.P.R.  and  others.  There  were  17  series, 
containing  17,653  trials,  and  4760  successes;  the 
theoretically  probable  number,  on  the  assumption 
that  the  results  were  due  to  chance,  being  4413. 
The  probability  for  some  cause  other  than  chance  de- 
duced from  this  result  is  .999,999,98,  which  represents 
perhaps  a  higher  degree  of  probability  than  the  in- 
habitants of  this  hemisphere  are  justified  in  attaching 
to  the  belief  that  the  ensuing  night  will  be  followed 
by  another  day.1  In  a  similar  series  of  experiments 
carried  out  under  the  direction  of  the  American  S.P.R. 
the  proportion  of  successes  was  little  higher  than  the 
theoretically  probable  number.2  But  in  the  absence 
of  details  as  to  the  conditions  under  which  the  ex- 
periments were  made,  no  unfavourable  inference  can 
fairly  be  drawn  from  these  results.  At  any  rate  some 
very  remarkable  results  were  obtained  later,  in  a 
series  of  trials  made  on  the  lines  laid  down  by  the 
committee  of  the  American  Society.  The  agent  in 
this  case  was  Mrs.  J  F.  Brown,  the  percipient  Nellie 
Gallagher,  "  a  domestic  lately  come  from  the  county 
of  Northumberland,  in  New  Brunswick."  The  ex- 
periments appear  to  have  been  carried  out  with  great 
care,  and  the  results  are  recorded  and  analysed  at 
length  (Proc.  Am.  S.P.R.,  pp.  322-349).  3000  trials 
were  made  in  guessing  the  numbers  from  o  to  9  or 
from  I  to  10  inclusive.  The  order  of  the  digits  in 
each  set  of  100  trials  was  determined  by  drawing  lots. 
The  agent  sat  at  one  side  of  a  table,  the  percipient  at 
the  other  side.  At  first  the  percipient  sat  facing  the 

1  The  calculation  is  by  Professor  F.  Y.  Edge  worth.  (See  Proc. 
S.P.R.,  vol.  iii.  p.  190.)  Of  course  the  statement  in  the  text  must  not 
be  taken  as  indicating  the  belief  of  Mr.  Edgeworth  or  the  writer  or  any 
one  else  that  the  above  figures  demonstrate  Thought-transference  as  the 
cause  of  the  results  attained.  The  results  may  conceivably  have  been 
due  to  some  error  of  observation  or  of  reporting.  But  the  figures  are 
sufficient  to  prove,  what  is  here  claimed  for  them,  that  some  cause 
must  be  sought  for  the  results  other  than  chance. 

8  Proc.  American  S.P.R.9  pp.  17  et  seq. 


28    APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

agent,  but  after  about  looo  trials  had  been  made  her 
back  was  turned  to  the  table — and  this  position  was 
continued  to  the  end.  The  paper  containing  the 
numbers  to  be  guessed  was  placed  in  the  agent's  lap, 
out  of  sight  of  the  percipient.  There  was  no  mirror 
in  the  room.  In  the  result  the  digits  were  correctly 
named  584  times,  or  nearly  twice  the  probable  num- 
ber, 300.  The  proportion  of  the  successes  steadily 
increased,  from  175  in  the  first  batch  of  IOOO  trials,  to 
190  in  the  second,  and  219  in  the  third  batch. 

No.  3.— By  DR.  OCHOROWICZ. 

In  the  following  set  of  experiments,  made  by  Dr. 
Ochorowicz,  ex-Professor  of  Psychology  and  Natural 
Philosophy  at  the  University  of  Lemberg,  described 
in  his  book  La  Suggestion  mentale  (pp.  69,  75,  76), 
there  are  not  sufficient  indications  in  most  cases  to 
enable  a  judgment  to  be  formed  as  to  the  special 
form  of  sense-impression  made  on  the  percipient's 
mind.  The  percipient  was  a  Madame  D.,  70  years 
of  age.  She  had  been  shown  to  be  amenable  to 
hypnotism,  but  during  these  experiments  she  was  in 
a  normal  condition.  She  is  described  as  being  of 
strong  constitution  and  in  good  health  ;  intelligent 
above  the  average,  well  read,  and  accustomed  to 
literary  work.  The  first  experiments  with  Madame 
D.  are  not  quoted  here,  not  having  been  conducted, 
as  Dr.  Ochorowicz  explains,  under  strict  conditions. 
The  objects  thought  of  had  been  selected  by  the 
agent,  instead  of  being  taken  haphazard,  and  the 
choice  had  frequently  been  directly  suggested  by  his 
surroundings.  It  seemed  possible,  therefore,  to  ex- 
plain the  results  as  due  to  an  unconscious  association 
of  ideas  common  to  agent  and  percipient.  Dr. 
Ochorowicz,  however,  has  shown  by  his  careful 
analysis  of  the  experiments  recorded  in  the  earlier 
chapters  of  his  book  that  he  is  fully  aware  of  the 
risk  of  error  from  this  and  other  causes,  and  in  the 


TRANSFERENCE  IN   NORMAL  STATE. 


series  of  the  2nd  May  and  the  following  days  he  tells 
us  that  adequate  precautions  were  taken. 

An  Object. 

Portrait  ...  of  a  man  ...  a 

bust. 

Something  round. 
Something  made  of  lead  .  .  . 

of  bronze  ...  it  is  iron. 


36.  A  bust  of  M.  N. 

37.  A  fan. 

38.  A  key. 


39.  A  hand  holding  a  ring. 


40.  Acid. 


41.  A  square. 

42.  A  circle. 


43-  M. 
44.  D. 

45-  J- 

46.  B. 

47-  O. 
48.  Jan. 


Something  shining,  a  diamond 
...  a  ring. 

A  Taste. 
|  Sweet. 

A  Diagram. 

I  Something  irregular. 
I  A  triangle  ...  a  circle. 

A  Letter. 

M. 
D. 

A,  X,  R,  B. 

W,  A  ;  no,  it  is  an  O. 

J  ...  (go  on  !)  Jan. 


Third  Series,  May  6th,  1885. — Twenty-five  experiments  were 
made,  of  which,  unfortunately,  I  have  kept  no  record,  except  of 
the  three  following,  which  impressed  me  most.  (The  subject 
had  her  back  to  us,  held  the  pencil  and  wrote  whatever  came 
into  her  head.  We  touched  her  back  lightly,  keeping  our  eyes 
fixed  on  the  letters  we  had  written.) 


49.  Brabant. 


50.  Paris. 

51.  Telephone. 


Bra  ...  (I  made  a  mental 
effort  to  help  the  subject, 
without  speaking.) 

Brabant. 

P  .  .  .  aris. 

T  .  .  .  elephone. 


Fourth  Series^  May  8th. — Same  conditions. 

52.  Z.  L,  P,  K,  J. 

53.  B.  B. 

54.  T.  S,  T,  F. 

55.  N.  M,  N. 

56.  P.  -                            R,  Z,  A. 
57-  Y.  V,  Y. 


30    APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 


Fourth  Series — continued. 

58.  E. 

59.  Gustave. 

60.  Duch. 

61.  Ba. 

62.  No. 


E. 

F,  J,  Gabriel. 

E,  O. 
B,A. 

F,  K,  O. 


A  Number. 

63.  44.  I  6,  8,  12. 

64.  2.  I  7,  5»  9- 

(I  told  my  assistant  to  imagine  the  look  of  the  number  when 
written,  and  not  its  sound.) 


65-  3. 

66.  7. 

67.  8. 


8,3- 

7- 

8  ;  no,  o,  6,  9. 


Then  followed  thirteen  trials  with  fantastic  figures, 
details  of  which  Dr.  Ochorowicz  does  not  record. 
He  tells  us,  however,  that  only  five  of  the  representa- 
tions presented  even  a  general  resemblance  to  the 
originals. 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  in  this  series  of  experi- 
ments contact  was  not  completely  excluded  in  all  the 
trials.  But  if  Dr.  Ochorowicz's  memory  may  be 
relied  upon  for  the  statement  that  the  agent  looked 
at  the  original  letters  and  diagrams,  and  not  at  the 
percipients  attempts  at  reproducing  them,  the  hypo- 
thesis of  involuntary  muscular  guidance  must  be 
severely  strained  to  account  for  the  results.  At  any 
rate,  in  the  three  remaining  trials  in  this  series  it 
seems  clear  that  muscle-reading  is  inadequate  as  an 
explanation. 

A  person  thought  of. 
Subject. 

68.  The  percipient. 

69.  M.  D . 


Answer. 

M.  O ;  no,  it's  myself. 

M.  D . 


70.  We  pictured  to  ourselves 
a    crescent    moon.     M. 

P on  a  background 

of  clouds,  I  in  a  clear 
dark  blue  sky. 


An  Image. 


I  see  passing  clouds  ...  a 
light  ...  (in  a  satisfied 
tone) — it  is  the  moon. 


TRANSFERENCE  IN   NORMAL  STATE.  31 

Transference  of  Visual  Images. 
No.  4.— By  DR.  BLAIR  THAW. 

The  experiments  which  follow  were  made  by  Dr. 
Blair  Thaw,  M.D.,  of  New  York.  The  series  quoted, 
which  took  place  on  the  28th  of  April  1892,  com- 
prises all  the  trials  in  which  Dr.  Thaw  was  himself 
the  percipient.  Dr.  Thaw  had  his  eyes  blindfolded 
and  his  ears  muffled,  and  the  agent,  Mrs.  Thaw,  and 
Mr.  M.  H.  Wyatt,  who  was  present  but  took  no  part 
in  the  agency,  kept  silent,  except  when  it  was  neces- 
sary to  state  whether  an  object,  card,  number,  or 
colour  was  to  be  guessed.  The  objects  were  in  all 
cases  actually  looked  at  by  the  agent,  the  "colour" 
being  a  coloured  disc,  and  the  numbers  being  printed 
on  separate  cards.1 

ist  Object.  SILK  PINCUSHION,  in  form  of  Orange-Red  Apple, 
quite  round. — Percipient :  A  Disc.  When  asked  what  colour, 
said,  Red  or  Orange.  When  asked  what  object,  named 
Pincushion. 

2nd  Object.  A  SHORT  LEAD  PENCIL,  nearly  covered  by  the 
nickel  cover.  Never  seen  by  percipient.  Percipient :  Some- 
thing  white  or  light.  A  card.  I  thought  of  Mr.  Wyatfs  silver 
pencil. 

yd  Object.  A  DARK  VIOLET  in  Mr.  Wyatt's  button-hole, 
but  not  known  to  be  in  the  house  by  percipient.  Percipient : 
Something  dark.  Not  very  big.  Longish.  Narrow.  Soft. 
It  carit  be  a  cigarette  because  it  is  dark  brown.  A  dirty  colour. 
Asked  about  smell,  said  :  Not  strong,  but  what  you  might  call 
pungent;  a  clean  smell. 

Percipient  had  not  noticed  smell  before,  though  sitting  by 
Mr.  Wyatt  some  time,  but  when  afterwards  told  of  the  violet 
knew  that  this  was  the  odour  noticed  in  experiment. 

Asked  to  spell  name,  percipient  said :  Phrygian,  Phrigid,  or 
first  letter  V  if  not  Ph. 

4/7*  Object.  WATCH,  dull  silver  with  filigree.  Percipient: 
Yellow  or  dirty  ivory.  Not  very  big.  Like  carving  on  it. 
Watch  is  opened  by  agent,  and  percipient  is  asked  what  was 
done.  Percipient  says :  You  opened  it.  It  is  shaped  like  a 

1  See  Dr.  Thaw's  paper,  Proc.  Soc.  Psych.  Research,  vol.  viii.  pp. 
422  et  stq. 


32  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

butterfly.  Percipient  held  finger  and  thumb  of  each  hand 
making  figure  much  like  that  of  opened  watch.  Percipient 
asked  to  spell  it,  said  :  I  get  r-i-n-g  ivith  a  W  at  first* 

PLAYING  CARDS. 

KING  SPADES. — Spades.  Spot  in  middle  and  spots  outside. 
7  Spades,  p  Spades. 

4  CLUBS.— 4  Clubs. 

5  SPADES.— 5  Diamonds. 

NUMBERS  OUT  OF  NINE  DIGITS. 

4. — Percipient  said  :  //  stands  up  straight.    4. 
6. — Percipient  said:  Those  two  are  too  much  alike  y  only  a 
little  gap  in  one  of  them.    It  is  either  j  or  6. 

3-— 3- 

i. — Percipient  said  :  Cover  up  that  upper  part  if  it  is  the  I. 
It  is  either  7  or  i. 

2.— p,  8. 

[From  acting  so  much  as  agent  in  previous  trials,  I  knew  the 
shapes  of  these  numbers  printed  on  cardboard,  and  as  agent 
found  the  5  and  6  too  much  alike.  After  looking  hard  at  one  of 
them  I  can  hardly  tell  the  difference,  and  always  cover  the 
upper  projection  of  the  i  because  it  is  so  much  like  a  7. 

The  numbers  were  printed  on  separate  pieces  of  cardboard, 
and  there  were  about  a  hundred  in  the  box,  being  made  for 
some  game.] 

COLOURS,  CHOSEN  AT  RANDOM. 

Chosen.  1st  Guess.  2nd  Guess. 

BRIGHT  RED         ...  Bright  Red. 

LIGHT  GREEN      ...  Light  Green. 

YELLOW     Dark  Blue Yellow. 

BRIGHT  YELLOW  ...  Bright  Yellow. 

DARK  RED  ...  Blue  Dark  Red. 

DARK  BLUE          ...  Orange         Dark  Blue. 

ORANGE     ...        ...  Green  ...        ...    Heliotrope. 

The  percipient  himself  told  the  agents  to  change  character  of 
object  after  each  actual  failure,  thus  getting  new  sensations. 

Percipient  was  told  to  go  into  next  room  and  get  something. 

ist  Object.  SILVER  INKSTAND  chosen.— Percipient  says. 
/  think  of  something^  but  it  is  too  bright  and  easy.  It  is  the 
silver  inkstand. 

Percipient  told  to  get  something  in  next  room. 
(  2nd  Object.    A  GLASS  CANDLESTICK.— Percipient  went  to 
right  corner  of  the  room  and  to  the  cabinet  with  the  object  on 
it,  but  could  not  distinguish  which  object. 


TRANSFERENCE   IN    NORMAL  STATE.  33 

Percipient  had  handkerchief  off  to  be  able  to  walk,  but  was 
not  followed  by  agents,  and  did  not  see  them.  Agents  found 
percipient  standing  with  hands  over  candlestick  undecided. 

From  the  percipient's  descriptions  it  would  seem 
that  the  impression  here  was  of  a  visual  nature, 
though  Dr.  Thaw  himself  says,  "  I  cannot  describe 
my  sensation  as  a  visualisation  of  any  kind.  It 
seemed  rather  to  be  by  some  wholly  subjective  pro- 
cess that  I  knew  what  the  agents  were  looking  at." 
It  is  not  always,  however,  an  easy  task  to  analyse 
one's  own  sensations  ;  and,  on  the  whole,  it  seems 
more  probable  that  there  was  visualisation,  but  of  a 
very  faint  and  ideal  kind. 

No.  5. — By  MR.  MALCOLM  GUTHRIE. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  long  series 
of  experiments  carried  on  during  the  years  1883-85 
by  Mr.  Malcolm  Guthrie  of  Liverpool.  During  a 
great  part  of  the  series  he  was  assisted  by  Mr.  James 
Birchall,  Hon.  Sec.  of  the  Liverpool  Literary  and 
Philosophical  Society.  Professor  Oliver  Lodge, 
Edmund  Gurney,  Professor  Herdman,  and  others 
co-operated  from  time  to  time.  Throughout  there 
were  two  percipients  only,  Miss  R.  and  Miss  E.  The 
experiments  were  conducted  and  the  results  recorded 
with  great  care  and  thoroughness  ;  and  the  whole 
series,  in  its  length,  its  variety,  and  its  completeness, 
forms  perhaps  the  most  important  single  contribution 
to  the  records  of  experimental  thought-transference 
in  the  normal  state.1  Summing  up,  in  July  1885,  the 
results  attained,  Mr.  Guthrie  writes  : — 

"We  have  now  a  record  of  713  experiments,  and  I  recently  set 
myself  the  task  of  classifying  them  into  the  4  classes  of  success- 
ful, partially  successful,  misdescriptions,  and  failures.  I  en- 

1  Records  of  these  experiments  will  be  found  in  the  Proc.  of  the  Soc. 
Psych.  Research,  vol.  i.  pp.  263-283  ;  vol.  ii.  pp.  1-5,  24-42,  189-200; 
vol.  iii.  pp.  424-452. 

3 


34  APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

deavoured  to  work  it  out  in  what  I  thought  a  reasonable  way, 
but  I  experienced  much  difficulty  in  assigning  to  its  proper 
column  each  experiment  we  made.  This,  however,  is  a  task 
which  each  student  of  the  subject  will  be  able  to  undertake  for 
himself  according  to  his  own  judgment.  I  do  not  submit  my 
summary  as  a  basis  for  calculation  of  probability.  A  few 
successful  experiments  of  a  certain  kind  carry  greater  weight 
with  them  than  a  large  number  of  another  kind  ;  for  some 
experiments  are  practically  beyond  the  region  of  guesses.  .  .  . 

"  The  following  is  a  summary  of  the  work  done,  classified  to 
the  best  of  my  judgment  :  — 


FIRST  SERIES. 


Experiments  and  Conditions. 

1 
H 

Nothing 
perceived. 

Complete. 

Partial. 

Misdescrip- 
tions. 

Visual  —  Letters,    figures,    and    cards  — 

Contact           - 

26 

2 

17 

4 

3 

Visual  —  Letters,    figures,    and    cards  — 

Non-contact            - 

16 

0 

9 

2 

5 

Visual  —  Objects,  colours,  etc.—  Contact- 

19 

6 

7 

4 

2 

Do,                 do.          Non-contact- 

38 

4 

28 

6 

0 

imagined  visual  —  Non-contact 

18 

5 

8 

2 

3 

Imagined  numbers  and  names  —  Contact 

and  Non-contact    - 

39 

ii 

12 

6 

10 

Pains  —  Contact     

52 

10 

30 

9 

3 

Tastes  and  smells—  Contact  - 

94 

19 

42 

20 

13 

302 

57 

*53 

53 

39 

Diagrams  —  Contact       - 

37 

7 

18 

6 

Do.         Non-contact 

118 

6 

66 

23 

23 

457 

70 

237 

82 

~68 

"  There  were  also  40  diagrams  for  experimental  evenings  with 
strangers,  in  series  of  sixes  and  sevens,  all  misdrawn,  and  not 
fairly  to  be  reckoned  in  the  above. 

457  experiments  under  proper  conditions. 
70  nothing  perceived. 

3S; 

319  wholly  or  partially  correct ;  68  misdescriptions  =  18  per 
cent." 


TRANSFERENCE   IN    NORMAL   STATE.  3$ 

In  the  second  series  there  were  123  trials;  in  15 
cases  no  impression  was  received,  and  in  35  cases,  or 
32  per  cent,  of  the  remainder,  an  incorrect  description 
was  given.  In  the  third  series,  of  133  trials  there 
were  24  in  which  no  impression  was  received  and  40 
failures:  proportion  of  failures  — 37  per  cent  Mr. 
Guthrie  attributes  this  gradual  decline  in  the  propor- 
tion of  successes  to  the  difficulty  experienced  by  both 
agents  and  percipients  in  maintaining  the  original 
lively  interest  in  the  proceedings. 

No.  6.— By  PROFESSOR  LODGE,  F.R.S. 

Subjoined  is  a  detailed  description  of  experiments 
made  on  two  evenings  in  1884,  recorded  by  Professor 
Lodge,1  which  leaves  no  room  for  doubt  that  the 
impressions  received  in  this  instance  by  the  percipient 
were  of  a  visual  nature.  The  agent  on  the  first 
evening  was  Mr.  James  Birchall,  who  held  the  hand 
of  the  percipient,  Miss  R.  The  only  other  person 
present  was  Professor  Lodge.  The  object  was  placed 
sometimes  on  a  wooden  screen  between  the  per- 
cipient and  the  agent,  at  other  times  behind  the 
percipient,  whose  eyes  were  bandaged.  The  bandage, 
it  should  be  observed,  was  a  sufficient  precaution 
against  cornea-reading;  but  for  other  purposes  no 
reliance  was  placed  upon  it.  It  is  believed  that  the 
precautions  taken  were  in  all  cases  adequate  to  con- 
ceal the  object  from  the  percipient  if  her  eyes  had 
been  uncovered.  In  the  account  quoted  any  remarks 
made  by  the  agent  or  Professor  Lodge  are  entered 
between  brackets. 

Object— a  blue  square  of  silk. — (Now,  it's  going  to  be  a 
colour;  ready.)  "Is  it  green?"  (No.)  "It's  something  be- 
tween green  and  blue.  .  .  .  Peacock."  (What  shape?)  She 
drew  a  rhombus. 

[N.B. — It  is  not  intended  to  imply  that  this  was  a  success  by 

1  Proc.  Soc.  Psych.  Research^  vol.  ii.  pp.  194-196. 


36  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

any  means,  and  it  is  to  be  understood  that  it  was  only  to  make 
a  start  on  the  first  experiment  that  so  much  help  was  given  as 
is  involved  in  saying  "it's  a  colour."  When  they  are  simply 
told  "  it's  an  object,"  or,  what  is  much  the  same,  when  nothing 
is  said  at  all,  the  field  for  guessing  is  practically  infinite.  When 
no  remark  at  starting  is  recorded  none  was  made,  except  such 
an  one  as  "  Now  we  are  ready,"  by  myself.] 

Next  object — a  key  on  a  black  ground. — (It's  an  object.)  In 
a  few  seconds  she  said,  "  It's  bright.  ...  It  looks  like  a  key." 
Told  to  draw  it,  she  drew  it  just  inverted. 

Next  object — three  gold  studs  in  morocco  case. — "  Is  it  yellow  ? 
.  .  .  Something  gold.  .  .  .  Something  round.  ...  A  locket  or 
a  watch  perhaps."  (Do  you  see  more  than  one  round  ?)  "  Yes, 
there  seem  to  be  more  than  one.  »  .  .  Are  there  three  rounds  ? 
.  .  .  Three  rings  ?"  (What  do  they  seem  to  be  set  in  ?)  "  Some- 
thing bright  like  beads."  [Evidently  not  understanding  or 
attending  to  the  question.]  Told  to  unblindfold  herself  and 
draw,  she  drew  the  three  rounds  in  a  row  quite  correctly,  and 
then  sketched  round  them  absently  the  outline  of  the  case, 
which  seemed  therefore  to  have  been  apparent  to  her  though 
she  had  not  consciously  attended  to  it.  It  was  an  interesting 
and  striking  experiment. 

Next  object — a  pair  of  scissors  standing  partly  open  with  their 
points  down. — "Is  it  a  bright  object?  .  .  .  Something  long- 
ways [indicating  verticality].  ...  A  pair  of  scissors  standing  up. 
...  A  little  bit  open."  Time,  about  a  minute  altogether.  She 
then  drew  her  impression,  and  it  was  correct  in  every  particular. 
The  object  in  this  experiment  was  on  a  settee  behind  her,  but 
its  position  had  to  be  pointed  out  to  her  when,  after  the  experi- 
ment, she  wanted  to  see  it. 

Next  object — a  drawing  of  a  right-angled  triangle  on  its  side. 
— (It's  a  drawing.)  She  drew  an  isosceles  triangle  on  its  side. 

Next — a  circle  with  a  cord  across  it. — She  drew  two  detached 
ovals,  one  with  a  cutting  line  across  it. 

Next — a  drawing  of  a   Union  Jack  pattern. — As  usual  in 
drawing  experiments,  Miss  R.  remained  silent  for  perhaps  a 
minute ;  then  she  said,  "  Now  I  am  ready."     I  hid 
the  object ;   she  took  off  the  handkerchief,  and 
proceeded  to  draw  on  paper  placed  ready  in  front 
of  her.     She  this  time  drew  all  the  lines  of  the 
figure  except  the  horizontal  middle  one.     She  was 
obviously  much  tempted  to  draw  this,  and,  indeed, 
began  it  two  or  three  times  faintly,  but  ultimately 
said,  "  No,  I'm  not  sure,"  and  stopped. 
REPRODUCTION.      [N.B. — The  actual  drawings  made  in   all  the 
experiments  are  preserved  intact  by  Mr.  Guthrie.] 

[END  OF  SITTING.] 


TRANSFERENCE   IN    NORMAL  STATJfi.  3/ 

Experiments  with  Miss  R. — Continued. 

I  will  now  describe  an  experiment  indicating  that  one  agent 
may  be  better  than  another. 

Object— the  Three  of  Hearts.— Miss  E.  and  Mr.  Birchall  both 
present  as  agents,  but  Mr.  Birchall  holding  percipient's  hands 
at  first.  "  Is  it  a  black  cross  ...  a  white  ground  with  a  black 
cross  on  it  ?  "  Mr.  Birchall  now  let  Miss  E.  hold  hands  instead 
of  himself,  and  Miss  R.  very  soon  said,  "Is  it  a  card  ?"  (Right.) 
"  Are  there  three  spots  on  it  ?  ...  Don't  know  what  they  are. 
...  I  don't  think  I  can  get  the  colour,  .  .  .  They  are  one  above 
the  other,  but  they  seem  three  round  spots.  ...  I  think  they're 
red,  but  am  not  clear." 

Next  object — a  play  ing  card  with  a  blue  anchor  painted  on  it 
slantwise  instead  of  pips. — No  contact  at  all  this  time,  but 

another  lady,  Miss  R d,  who  had  entered  the  room,  assisted 

Mr.  B.  and  Miss  E.  as  agents.  "Is  it  an  anchor?  ...  a  little 
on  the  slant."  (Do  you  see  any  colour?)  "Colour  is  black. 
...  It's  a  nicely  drawn  anchor."  When  asked  to  draw  she 
sketched  part  of  it,  but  had  evidently  half  forgotten  it,  and  not 
knowing  the  use  of  the  cross  arm,  she  could  only  indicate  that 
there  was  something  more  there  but  she  couldn't  remember 
what.  Her  drawing  had  the  right  slant  exactly. 

Another  object — two  pairs  of  coarse  lines  crossing;  drawn  in 
red  chalk,  and  set  up  at  some  distance  from  agents.  No  con- 
tact. "  I  only  see  lines  crossing."  She  saw  no  colour.  She 
afterwards  drew  them  quite  correctly,  but  very  small. 

Double  object. — It  was  now  that  I  arranged  the  double  object 

between  Miss  R d  and  Miss  E.,  who  happened  to  be  sitting 

nearly  facing  one  another.  [See  Nature,  June  I2th,  1884.] 
The  drawing  was  a  square  on  one  side  of  the  paper,  a  cross  on 

the  other.  Miss  R d  looked  at  the  side  with 

the  square  on  it.     Miss  E.  looked  at  the  side 
with  the  cross.     Neither  knew  what  the  other 
was  looking  at — nor  did  the  percipient  know 
ORIGINALS.        that  anything  unusual  was  being  tried.     Mr. 
Birchall  was  silently  asked  to  take  off  his  atten- 
tion and  he  got  up  and  looked  out  of  window 
before   the   drawings  were    brought  in,  and 
during  the  experiment.    There  was  no  con- 
REPRODUCTIOM.      tact.     Very  soon  Miss  R.  said,  "  I  see  things 
moving  about  ...  I  seem  to  see  two  things  ...  I  see  first  one 
up  there,  and  then  one  down  there  ...  I  don't  know  which  to 
draw.  ,  ,  .  I  can't  see  either  distinctly."    (Well,  anyhow,  draw 
what  you  have  seen.)    She  took  off  the  bandage  and  drew  first 
a  square,  and  then  said,   "  Then  there  was  the  other  thing 
as  well  .  .  .  afterwards  they  seemed  to  go  into  one,*  and  she 


x 


38  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

drew  a  cross  inside  the  square  from  corner  to  corner,  adding 
afterwards,  "  I  don't  know  what  made  me  put  it  inside." 

No.  7.— By  HERR  MAX  DESSOIR. 

In  June  1885  some  successful  experiments  in 
thought-transference  were  made  by  Herr  Dessoir,  of 
Berlin,  author  of  A  Bibliography  of  Modern  Hypnotism, 
and  other  works,  with  the  co-operation  of  some  friends, 
Herren  Weiss,  Biltz,  and  Sachse.  There  were  in  all 
eighteen  trials  with  diagrams  in  which  Herr  Dessoir 
was  the  percipient.  The  diagrams  which  follow — 
reproduced  from  the  original  drawings — were  the 
result  of  six  consecutive  trials.  They  are,  as  will  be 
seen,  not  completely  successful  ,  but  they  convey  a 
fair  idea  of  the  amount  of  success  attained  in  the  whole 
series.  It  should  be  noted  that  the  impression  re- 
ceived by  the  percipient  appears  to  have  been  per- 
sistent; and  that  the  second  attempt  at  reproduction, 
in  five  out  of  the  six  cases,  was  more  successful  than 
the  first,  Herr  Dessoir  states  that  he  was  generally 
out  of  the  room  whilst  the  figure  was  being  drawn ; 
he  returned  at  the  given  signal,  with  eyes  closely 
bandaged  ;  "  I  set  myself  at  the  table,  and  in  many 
instances  placed  my  hands  on  the  table,  and  the  agent 
placed  his  hands  on  mine;  the  hands  lay  quite  still  on 
one  another.  When  an  image  presented  itself  to  my 
mind,  the  hands  were  removed  .  .  and  I  took  off 
the  bandage  and  drew  my  figure." 

A  full  account  of  these  experiments,  and  of  others 
conducted  by  Herr  Dessoir,  will  be  found  in  Proc. 
S.P.R.,  vol.  iv.  pp.  111-126;  vol.  v.  pp.  35 5-3 57- 


TRANSFERENCE  IN    NORMAL  STATE.  39 

I. 


ORIG. 


Agent :  W.  S. 


REP.  i. 


REP.  i. 


REP.  2. 


While  the  second  reproduction  was  pro- 
ceeding, an  interruption  occurred  which 
prevented  its  completion. 


II. 
ORIG. 


Agent  :  H.  B. 
REP.  2.  REP.  3. 


Rrcp.  4. 


-fi 


40  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

III. 

REP.  i.  REP.  2. 


ORIG. 


Agent  :  II.  B. 


REP.  3. 


.      The  percipient  said,  "  It  looks  like  a 
window." 


IV. 


REP.  I. 


REP.  2. 


TRANSFERENCE   IN   NORMAL  STATE.  41 

REP.  3. 


Agent ;  H.  B. 


REP.  i. 


REP.  2. 


42  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 


ORIG. 


REI>.  2. 


Agent:  E.  W.  The  percipient  said,  "  It  looks  like  a  window." 

No.  8. — By  HERR  SCHMOLL  and  M.  MABIRE. 

Of  more  recent  experiments  with  diagrams,  those 
recorded  by  Herr  Anton  Schmoll  and  M.  Etienne 
Mabire  are  perhaps  the  most  important1  The  ex- 
periments took  place  at  Herr  Schmoirs  house,  in 
Avenue  de  Villiers,  Paris.  In  addition  to  Herr 
Schmoll  and  M.  Mabire,  Frau  Schmoll  and  four  or 
five  other  persons  assisted  at  one  time  or  another. 
Mr.  F.  W.  H.  Myers  was  also  present  on  three 
occasions.  In  all  about  100  trials  were  made  with 
diagrams  and  real  objects  (the  actual  number  of 
experiments  of  all  kinds  was  148),  full  details  of  which 
will  be  found  in  the  original  papers.  The  experi- 
ments were  made  in  the  evenings,  in  a  room  lighted 
by  a  hanging  lamp.  The  agents,  usually  three  or 
four  in  number,  sat  at  a  round  table  immediately 
under  the  lamp,  and  fixed  their  eyes  on  the  diagram 
or  object,  which  was  placed  on  the  table  before  them. 
The  percipient,  with  his  eyes  bandaged,  sat  in  full 
view  of  the  agents  with  his  back  to  them  in  a  corner 
of  the  room  at  a  distance  of  about  ten  feet  from  the 
object  Silence  was  maintained  during  the  experi- 
ments, except  where  otherwise  expressly  stated. 
The  object  or  diagram  was  carefully  hidden  before 
the  handkerchief  was  removed  from  the  eyes  of  the 

1  Proc.  Sof.  Psych.  Research ,  vol.  iv.  pp.  324  et  seq.\    vol.  v.  pp. 
169  et  seq. 


TRANSFERENCE   IN    NORMAL  STATE.  43 

percipient  to  enable  him  to  draw  his  impression.  In 
the  first  nineteen  experiments  the  figure  was  drawn 
with  the  end  of  a  match  dipped  in  ink,  whilst  the  per- 
cipient was  in  the  room.  It  was  not  likely,  under 
the  circumstances,  as  the  match  moved  almost  noise- 
lessly over  the  paper,  that  any  indication  of  the 
figure  drawn  could  by  this  means  have  been  given  to 
the  percipient.  Nevertheless,  in  the  later  experiments 
quoted  the  precaution  was  taken  to  draw  the  figure 
whilst  the  percipient  was  in  another  room,  and  a  soft 
brush  was  substituted  for  the  match.  The  following 
is  a  record,  by  Herr  Schmoll,  of  the  last  two  evenings 
of  the  first  series  : — 

1 8.—  August  iqt1i>  1886. 

Agents — Mdlle.  Louise,  Frau  Schmoll,  Schmoll. 
Percipient — M.  Mabire. 
Object  (drawn)— 


Result — M.  Mabire  saw  "  a  sort  of  semicircle  like  the  tail  of  a 
comet,  but  of  spiral  construction,  like  some  of  the  nebulas." 
"What  he  saw  he  reproduced  in  the  following  manner  : — 


19. — The  same  evening. 

Agents — Mdlle.  Louise,  M.  Mabire,  Frau  Schmoll. 
Percipient — Schmoll. 
Object  (drawn) — 


4 


Result — "  I  see  two  double  lines,  that  cross  each  other  at  about 
right  angles."    (Pause.)    "  The  two  double  lines  now  appear 


44  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 


single,  but  like  rays  of  light,  and  in  the  form  of  an  X." 
(Another  pause.)  "Now  I  see  the  upper  part  of  the  X 
separated  from  the  lower  by  a  vertical  line."  I  draw  :  — 


20. —  The  same  evening. 

Agents — Mdlle.  Louise,  M.  Mabire,  Schmoll. 

Percipient — Frau  Schmoll. 

Object — A  brass  weight  of  500  grms.  was  placed  on  the  table. 


Result— "  What  I  see  looks  like  a  short  piece  of  candle,  without 
a  candlestick.  It  must  be  burning,  for  at  the  upper  end  I 
see  it  glitter." 

Remark — At  the  upper  part  of  the  object,  indicated  by  the 
arrow,  bright  reflections,  caused  'by  the  oblique  lighting, 
were  seen  by  all  the  agents  (the  weight  was  rubbed  bright). 
The  form  seen  decidedly  resembles  the  original,  especially 
the  outline. 

21. — The  same  evening. 

Agents — M.  Mabire,  Frau  Schmoll,  Schmoll. 

Percipient — Mdlle.  Louise. 

Object — My  gold  watch  (without  the  chain)  was  noiselessly 
placed  before  us,  the  back  turned  towards  us  ;  on  the  face 
are  Roman  numbers. 

Result — After  five  minutes  :  "  I  see  a  round  object,  but  I  cannot 
describe  it  more  particularly."  (During  the  pause  that 
followed,  without  causing  the  slightest  noise,  I  turned  the 
watch  round,  so  that  we  saw  the  face.)  Soon  Mdlle.  Louise 
called  out  :  "  You  are  certainly  looking  at  the  clock  over 
the  piano,  for  now  I  quite  clearly  see  a  clock  face  with 
Roman  numbers." 

[The  watch,  as  was  ascertained  after  the  experiment,  was  not 
going  at  the  time.] 


TRANSFERENCE   IN   NORMAL  STATE.  45 

22.-— September  loth,  1886. 

Agents — Mdlle.  Louise,  M.  Mabire,  Frau  Schmoll. 

Percipient — Schmoll. 

Object — A  pamphlet  (in  8vo)  was  slantingly  placed  on  the  table. 

Result — Completely  failed.     I  saw  nothing  whatever. 

Remark — At  the  beginning  of  our  trials  to-day  we  had  neg- 
lected to  clear  the  table.  The  book  was  surrounded  by 
other  objects,  and  also  badly  lighted. 

23. — The  same  evening. 

Agents — Mdlle.  Louise,  M.  Mabire,  Schmoll. 

Percipient — Frau  Schmoll. 

Object — A  piece  of  candle,  20  centimetres  long,  was  placed  on 
the  table. 

Result — After  eight  minutes :  "  I  see  it  well,  but  not  clearly 
enough  to  say  what  it  is.  It  is  a  thin,  long  object." 

"  How  long  ?  "  asked  M.  Mabire. 

Frau  Schmoll  tried  by  separating  her  hands  to  give  a  measure- 
ment, but  could  not  do  it  with  certainty,  and  said,  "  A  full 
hand's  length,  about  20  centimetres."  Begged  for  a  further 
description,  she  said,  "  I  see  something  like  a  walking-stick, 
but  at  one  end  there  must  be  gold,  for  something  shines 
there."  (The  candle  was  not  burning.) 

24. —  The  same  evening. 

Agents — M.  Mabire,  Frau  Schmoll,  Schmoll. 

Percipient — Mdlle.  Louise. 

Object — A  Faience  tea-pot  was  placed  on  the  table  : — 


Result — After  five  minutes  :  "It  is  not  a  drawing,  but  a  real 
object.     I  see  very  clearly  a  little  vase,  a  little  pot  or  pan." 

25. — The  same  evening. 

Agents — Mdlle.  Louise,  Frau  Schmoll,  Schmoll. 

Percipient — M.  Mabire. 

Object — The  stamp  of  the  firm  was  placed  on  the  table  : — 


46  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

Result — After  twenty  minutes  r  "  The  picture  appears  to  be 
rather  confused.  But  I  believe  that  I  see  the  lower  part  of  a 
drinking  glass."  (Pause.)  "  Now  it  has  gone  again."  (A 
pause  of  five  minutes.)  "  Now  I  see  another  form,  like 
two  symmetrical  S-shaped  double  curves,  placed  side  by 
side."  Then  M.  Mabire  drew  :— 


Remark — Apparently  the  lower  part  was  seen  first,  and  then 
the  upper. 

26. — The  same  evening. 

Agents-r-TA.  Mabire,  Frau  Schmoll,  Schmoll. 
Percipient — Mdlle.  Louise. 

Object — The  double  eye-glasses    (pince-nez)  belonging  to   M. 
Mabire  were  laid  on  the  table. 


Result — After  five  minutes  :  "  I  see  two  curves,  open  above, 
that  do  not  touch  each  other."  Then  Mdlle.  Louise 
drew  : — 


Unfortunately,  the  original  drawings  and  reproduc- 
tions in  this  series  were  not  preserved.  The  figures 
given  are  facsimile  reproductions  of  those  in  Herr 
SchmoH's  MS.  record,  which  were  copied  at  the  time 
on  a  reduced  scale  from  the  actual  drawings  made  by 
the  agent  and  the  percipient  respectively.  In  the 
second  series  the  actual  drawings  have  been  pre- 
served. In  the  experiments  quoted  below,  as  already 
stated,  the  figure  was  drawn  whilst  the  percipient  was 
out  of  the  room,  and  (with  the  exception  of  No.  58) 


TRANSFERENCE   IN    NORMAL   STATE. 


47 


several  copies  were  made  of  the  drawing,  "  in  order 
that  each  agent  might  be  able  to  see  the  drawing  in 
an  upright  position,  and  that  he  might  be  able  to 
place  it  at  the  most  favourable  point  of  view."  The 
percipient  when  ready  withdrew  the  bandage  from 
his  eyes  and,  still  seated  in  the  chair  with  his  back  tc 
the  agents,  executed  the  reproduction. 

April  $M,  1887. 


No.  of 
Trial. 

Percipient. 

Agents. 

Original 
Drawing. 

Result. 

51 

Mdlle.  Louise 

4. 

M. 

Mrae.  D. 

C*j 

UV/J 

Mdlle.  Jane. 

^fr 

Ml 

Mme.  Schmoll 

1 

II 

M.  Schmoll. 

X 

<iar 

Each      agent 

Before     drawing    the 

had  a  copy 

above  figure,  Mdlle. 

of   the  ori- 
ginal. 

Louise  said,  "a  ter- 
restrial globe   on  a 
support." 

10  minutes. 

52 

Mdlle.  Jane. 

4. 

Mdllo.  Louise 
in   place  of 
Mdlle.  Jane. 

4 

/ 

Four  copies  of 

10  minutes. 

the  original 

were  used  by 

the  agents. 

63 

Mme.  Schmoll 

3. 

^ 

A 

Three    copies 
used. 

During  the  experiment 
Mme.    Schmoll   said 

that  she  saw  '  •  a  little 

roof." 

10  minutes. 

54 

Mdlle.  Jane. 

3. 

1-1 

^^^ 

Mrae.  Schmoll 

^•"^ 

/^CS^ 

in  place  of 

V     i 

Mdlle.  Jane. 

JL 

*§r 

Three    copies 

15  minutes. 

used. 

Mdlle.  Jane,  after  having  seen  the  original,  said  that  her  first 
idea  had  been  that  of  a  glass. 


48  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

April  5//z,  1887  (continued}. 


No.  of 
Trial. 

Percipient. 

Agents. 

Original 
Drawing. 

Result. 

55 

Mme.  D. 

4. 

6\- 

vlx 

Four     copies 

10  minutes. 

used. 

50 

M.  Schmoll. 

4. 

Mme.    D.    in 

» 

Slace  of  M. 

flit 

. 

chmoll. 

iri 

$Vi 

W 

p  'A 

Four     copies 

10  minutes. 

used. 

57 

A  Failure. 

68 

Mdlle.  Jane. 

6. 

I\ 

After     five      minutes 
Mdlle.     Jane     said, 

nL        1 

"  I  see  a  cat's  head." 

^^^t/ 

On    being    asked    to 

^*»r 

draw  what  she  saw, 

she     produced    the 
following  figure  :— 

This  was  the 

first       time 

t>^—  vtfl 

that  an  ani- 

r*5t>  »j^-i 

m  a  1     had 

\      **'^^E 

been  drawn. 

^2Jx 

59 

Mdlle.  Jane. 

6. 

/S^k 

At   the    end    of    five 
minutes,  Mdlle.  Jane 

/*JM) 

having   said,  "i«  is 
a  head  in  profile"  a 

^^         mr 

cry  of  joy   unfortu- 

*           V 

nately   escaped  one 

Vta^    ^^ 

of     those     present. 

This  was  the 

This  cry  having  be- 
trayed    to     Mdlle. 
Jane   that  she   had 

first      time 
that  a  head 

guessed   rightly,  no 
drawing  was   made. 

had  been 

In   order   to    repair 

drawn. 

the  wrong  as  much 
as    possible,   Mdlle. 
Jane      was      asked 

which  way  the  head 

was    turned.       "  To 

the    left,"    she    re- 

plied. 

Experiments  6p,  61,  62,  63,  64  were  failures, 
an  experiment  with  a  diagram. 


No.  65  was  not 


TRANSFERENCE   IN    NORMAL  STATE. 
April  ^th,  1887. 


49 


No.  of 
Trial. 

Percipient. 

Agents. 

Original 
Drawing. 

Result. 

C6 

Mdlle.  Louise. 

5. 

At  the  end  of  a  few 

(plus  Mr.  Myers) 

minute 

s,    Mdlle. 

Louise  sa 

Lid,   "I  seo 

three      fish      on     a 

skewer." 

Not  being 

well  undc 

>rstood,  she 

explained 

"  Three 

fish  held  by  a  skewer, 

that  is  a 

3  they  are 

sold     in 

the     fish 

markets  ; 

but  every- 

body   know*   that  1  " 

Then    slw 

3    took    off 

her     bandage      and 

drew  — 

V 

\J 

^ 

This  figure  was 

u 

drawn    by 

', 

Mr.  Myers. 

67 

Failure. 

• 

68 

Failure. 

*  .  ~ 

m    •     i      * 
J 

69 

Mdlle.  Louise. 

5. 
plus  Mr.  Myers) 

f 

f 

Appended  is  a  statement  from  Mdlle.  Jane  D.,  a 
young  lady  of  20,  who  appears  to  have  been  one  of 
the  most  successful  percipients  in  this  series  : — 

"  Whenever  I  have  taken  part  in  the  experiments  as  per- 
cipient, I  have  endeavoured  to  expel  from  my  mind  all  thoughts 
and  images,  and  have  remained  inactive,  with  my  hands  over 
my  eyes,  waiting  for  the  production  of  an  impression  ;  some- 
times I  have  tied  up  my  eyes,  but  this  plan  has  not  always  been 

4 


SO  APPARITIONS  AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

successful.  At  other  times  the  idea  of  an  object  has  presented 
itself  to  me  before  I  have  seized  its  form,  but  most  frequently  I 
seemed  to  see  the  picture  either  black  on  a  white  ground,  or 
white  on  a  black  ground.  In  general,  the  objects  present  them- 
selves in  an  undecided  manner,  and  pass  away  very  rapidly ; 
usually  I  only  grasp  a  portion  of  them. 

"  Whenever  I  have  been  most  successful,  I  have  remarked 
that  the  picture  has  presented  itself  to  my  imagination  almost 
instantaneously.  Sometimes  also  I  have  been  led  to  draw  an 
object  of  which  the  name  was  forced  on  me,  as  if  by  some 
external  influence. 

"JANED. 
"Paris,  February  \*]th,  1888." 

Appended  are  a  few  facsimiles  of  the  most  success- 
ful of  the  above  results,  reproduced  in  the  original 
size. 


No.  51.— ORIGINAL. 


No.  51.  -  REPRODUCTION. 


TRANSFERENCE  IN   NORMAL  STATE.  51 


No.  53.— ORIGINAL. 


A 


No.  53.— REPRODUCTION, 


52  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 


No  56. — ORIGINAL. 


TRANSFERENCE  IN  NORMAL  STATE. 


No.  56.— REPRODUCTION. 


No.  58.— ORIGINAL.  No.  58.— REPRODUCTION. 


No.  66.—ORIGINAL. 


54  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 


No.  66.— REPRODUCTION, 

No.  Q.— By  DR.  VON   SCHRENK-NOTZING. 

Baron  von  Schrenk-Notzing,  M.D.,  of  Munich, 
whose  work  in  hypnotism  is  well  known,  carried  on  a 
series  of  experiments  with  diagrams  and  numbers,  etc., 
in  the  course  of  the  year  iSgo.1  Space  will  not  permit 
of  our  quoting  these  results  in  full,  The  following 
experiments  are  selected  as  being  the  only  three  in 
which  the  agent  and  percipient  were  in  different 
rooms.  The  percipient,  Fraulein  A.,  was  u  patient 
of  Dr.  von  Schrenk-Notzing's,  of  rather  hysterical 
temperament;  throughout  the  experiments  she  was 
in  a  normal  condition  and  fully  awake.  In  these 
three  trials,  which  took  place  between  10.12  P.M.  and 
10.23  P.M.  on  the  isth  October  1890,  Fraulein  A. 
sat  on  a  chair  in  the  agent's  study  about  a  yard  from 
the  door  leading  into  the  adjoining  room,  and  with 
her  back  towards  it  j  paper  and  pencil  were  on  the 
table  before  her.  In  the  adjoining  room,  about  12 

1  Proc,  S.P.fi.,  vol.  vii.  pp.  3-22. 


TRANSFERENCE  IN    NORMAL  STATE.  55 

feet  in  a  direct  line  from  the  percipient,  with  the  door 
of  communication  closed,  Dr.  von  Schrenk-Notzing 
stood,  beside  a  small  table,  and  drew  a  rough  diagram 
representing  the  staff  of  ^Esculapius  and  the  Serpent 
When  the  drawing  was  complete,  to  quote  Dr. 
Schrenk-Notzing, 

"  I  call  *  Ready  ? '  The  percipient  says,  *  Yes.'  We  have 
been  drawing  at  the  same  time  in  different  rooms.  On  return- 
ing to  the  study  I  compare  the  drawings  and  see  with  astonish- 
ment that  Fraulein  A.  has  drawn  a  serpent.  Even  the  open 
mouth  and  the  thickened  end  of  the  tail  in  the  reproduction 
agree  with  the  original.  The  experiment  has  succeeded  in  its 
essential  part,  and  as  regards  strictness  of  conditions  I  think  it 
quite  unassailable.  Unconscious  suggestion  is  absolutely  ex- 
cluded, when  agent  and  percipient  are  in  different  rooms. 
Any  corresponding  association  of  ideas  seems  to  me  also  impos- 
sible, for  the  idea  of  the  staff  of  ^Esculapius  first  occurred  to  me 
in  the  other  room.  In  the  study  there  is  no  object  which  could 
have  led  up  to  the  idea — no  indication  which  could  have  pointed 
out  the  way." 

The  percipient  had,  in  fact,  drawn  a  spiral  figure 
apparently  intended  to  represent  a  serpent. 

The  two  other  experiments  here  referred  to  were 
performed  in  immediate  succession,  and  under  pre- 
cisely similar  conditions,  the  time  allowed  in  each 
case  being  about  two  minutes. 

In  the  second  experiment  the  agent  drew  an  arrow; 
the  percipient  drew  another  spiral,  with  intersecting 
loops.  In  this  case,  as  the  agent  points  out,  the 
original  idea  of  the  serpent  appears  to  have  per- 
sisted in  the  percipient's  mind. 

In  the  third  experiment  the  agent  drew  a  triangle 
inscribed  in  a  circle ;  also  two  diameters  to  the  circle, 
crossing  each  other  at  right  angles,  the  vertical 
diameter  bisecting  the  upper  angle  of  the  triangle. 
The  agent  writes  : — 

"The  drawing  was  done  in  the  following  way.  I  began 
with  the  triangle,  and  then  drew  the  perpendicular  on  the 
base.  The  idea  that  thereupon  occurred  to  me,  that  the 
figure  was  too  simple,  induced  me  to  add  a  circle  and 
to  prolong  the  perpendicular  to  the  circumference;  finally  I 


$6  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

added  the  horizontal  diameter.  The  percipient  was  drawing  at 
the  same  time  at  table  £,  sitting  on  chair  5,  with  her  back  to  the 
closed  door  of  communication.  Question  from  the  next  room, 
4 Are  you  ready?'  Answer,  'Stop,'  as  I  am  about  to  open 
the  door.  Then,  *  Now.'  I  open  the  door  and  enter  the  room. 
The  two  drawings  agree  except  that  the  circle  and  the  hori- 
zontal diameter  are  wanting.  Even  the  perpendicular  of  the 
triangle,  which  has  become  obtuse  angled,  is  prolonged  beyond 
the  base,  just  as  in  the  original.  This  prolongation  and  addition 
of  the  perpendicular  cannot  be  explained  by  any  tendency  of 
ideas  to  recur  (diagram-habit).  Only  the  fact  that  a  triangle 
was  drawn  might,  taken  alone,  be  explained  in  some  such  way." 

Figures  of  the  original  diagrams  in  this  case  are 
given  in  the  Proceedings  of  tlie  S.P.R. 

Some  experiments  with  diagrams,  conducted  in 
July  1890  by  Drs.  Grimaldi  and  Fronda,  have  been 
published  by  Lombroso.1  The  subject  was  a  young 
man  of  twenty,  subject  to  hysterical  attacks  and  spon- 
taneous somnambulism.  The  first  experiments  were 
made  in  the  hypnotic  state,  with  numbers,  and  met 
with  only  moderate  success.  Later,  however,  the 
trials  were  made  in  the  normal  state.  At  the  first 
sitting  diagrams  were  tried.  The  subject  had  his 
eyes  firmly  bandaged  and  his  ears  plugged  with 
cotton  wool.  The  diagrams  were  drawn  at  a  certain 
distance  (ad  una  certa  distanza)  from  the  subject,  and 
behind  him.  Under  these  conditions  the  first  five 
experiments  were  completely  successful ;  the  subject 
reproduced  in  turn  a  rhomb,  a  circle,  a  triangle,  an 
irregular  pentagon,  shaped  something  like  the  pro- 
file of  a  barn,  and  a  cone.  The  next  experiment 
failed,  only  a  formless  scribble  being  obtained.  The 
subject  was  much  exhausted,  and  fell  into  a  semi- 
cataleptic  state  as  soon  as  the  bandage  was  removed. 

Some  success  was  obtained  in  later  sittings,  in  the 
guessing  of  names  and  in  the  execution  of  mental 
commands.  But  the  experiments  had  soon  to  be 
abandoned,  on  account  of  the  health  of  the  percipient. 

Other  experiments  with  diagrams,  in  addition  to 

1  Trasmissiom  del Fensiero,  etc,,  Naples,  1891. 


TRANSFERENCE   IN   NORMAL  STATE.  57 

those  above  referred  to,  will  be  found  in  the  Proceed- 
ings of  the  S.P.R.,  vol.  i.  pp.  161-215,  by  Mr.  Gurney, 
the  writer,  and  others;  vol.  ii.  pp.  207-216,  by  Mr. 
W.  J.  Smith.  The  paper  on  Thought-transference, 
etc.,  by  Professor  C.  Richet,  Proceedings,  vol.  v.  pp. 
18-168,  should  also  be  consulted  in  this  connection. 


CHAPTER  III. 

EXPERIMENTAL    TRANSFERENCE   OF   SIMPLE  SENSA- 
TIONS WITH  HYPNOTISED  PERCIPIENTS. 

As  already  stated,  the  hypnotic  state  offers  peculiar 
facilities  for  observing  the  transmission  of  thought 
and  sensation.  It  is  possible  that  the  superior  suscept- 
ibility of  the  hypnotised  percipient  is  in  some  measure 
due  simply  to  the  quiescence  and  freedom  from 
spontaneous  mental  activity  very  generally  induced 
by  the  state  of  sleep-waking.  There  are  indications, 
moreover,  that  the  hypnotic  state  itself  may  present 
in  many  cases  a  specialised  manifestation  of  that 
rapport  which  would  appear  to  exist  generally  be- 
tween Agent  and  Percipient  in  thought-transference. 
But  the  close  association  of  the  telepathic  activities 
with  the  consciousness  which  emerges  in  hypnotism 
and  allied  states  suggests  an  explanation  of  a  more 
general  kind,  and  may  possibly  throw  light  on  the 
evolution  of  the  faculty  itself.1  However  this  may  be, 
there  can  be  no  question  that  the  most  remarkable 
results  in  experimental  telepathy  so  far  recorded  are 
those  given  in  this  and  the  following  chapters  with 
hypnotised  percipients. 

Transference  of  Tastes. 

The  fact  that  notwithstanding  this  recognised 
facility  comparatively  few  observers  have  experimented 
with  hypnotised  subjects,  except  in  one  or  two  direc- 

1  See  the  discussion  on  this  question  in  Chapter  XVI- 


TRANSFERENCE  IN  HYPNOTIC  STATE.     59 

tions,  calls  for  some  explanation.  There  are,  indeed, 
innumerable  records  of  the  transmission  of  sensations 
of  taste  and  pain  in  the  hypnotic  state.  The  uncer- 
tainty attending  any  experiment  in  the  first  direction 
with  subjects  in  whom  special  exaltation  of  any 
particular  sense  is  not  merely  possible,  but  even  under 
the  conditions  of  the  experiments  probable,  has  been 
already  pointed  out.  Such  trials,  conducted  with  a 
variety  of  substances  nearly  all  of  which  are  in  some 
degree  odorous,  must  necessarily  He  under  suspicion. 
To  the  references  quoted  in  the  preceding  chapter  (p.  21) 
and  to  the  experiments  of  this  nature  recorded  in  the 
Proceedings  of  the  S.P.J?.1  it  will  suffice  here  to  add  one 
further  instance,  in  which  the  hypothesis  of  hyper- 
aesthesia  seems  hardly  an  adequate  explanation  of  the 
result.  In  a  communication  to  the  Revue  Philosophique 
in  February  1889,  Dr.  Dufay  quotes  the  following 
passage  from  a  letter  received  by  him  from  Dr.  Azai^n, 
the  veteran  historian  of  F£lida  X.: — 

No.  10. — By  DR.  AZAM. 

u  I  myself,  and  I  believe  many  other  medical  men,  have 
observed  cases  of  this  or  of  a  similar  nature.  I  will  quote  two, 
in  which  I  think  I  took  all  necessary  precautions  before  being 
convinced  of  their  truth. 

"ist.  About  1853  or  1854, 1  had  under  my  care  a  young  woman 
with  confirmed  hysteria  :  nothing  was  easier  than  to  put  her  to 
sleep  by  various  means.  I  consider  myself  entitled  to  state 
that,  while  holding  her  hand,  my  unspoken  thoughts  were  trans- 
ferred to  her,  but  upon  this  I  do  not  insist,  error  and  fraud 
being  possible. 

"But  the  transmission  of  a  definite  sensation  seemed  to  me  to 
be  absolutely  certain.  This  is  how  I  proceeded :  Having  put 
the  patient  to  sleep,  and  seated  myself  by  her  side,  I  leaned 
towards  her  and  dropped  my  handkerchief  behind  her  chair ; 
then,  while  stooping  to  lift  it  up,  I  quickly  put  into  my  mouth  a 
pinch  of  common  salt,  which,  unknown  to  her,  I  had  beforehand 
put  into  the  right-hand  pocket  of  my  waistcoat.  The  salt  being 
absolutely  without  smell,  it  was  impossible  that  the  patient 
should  have  known  that  I  had  some  in  my  mouth ;  but  as  soon 

1  Vol.  i.  pp.  226,  241  ;  vol.  ii.  pp.  17-19. 


60  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

as  I  raised  myself  again  I  saw  her  face  express  disgust,  and  she 
moved  her  lips  about.  *  That  is  very  nasty/  she  said  ;  '  why 
did  you  put  salt  into  my  mouth  ? ' 

"  I  have  repeated  this  experiment  several  times  with  other 
inodorous  substances,  and  it  has  always  succeeded.  I  report 
this  fact  alone  because  it  seems  to  me  to  be  certain." 

Transference  of  Pain, 

Experiments  with  sensations  of  pain,  as  has  been 
pointed  out,  stand  on  a  different  footing.  There  is  no 
special  source  of  error  to  be  guarded  against.  The 
following  trials,  conducted  by  Mr.  Edmund  Gurney, 
with  the  assistance  of  the  present  writer  and  others, 
on  two  evenings  in  the  early  part  of  1883,  will  perhaps 
suffice  to  indicate  the  possibility  of  such  transmission. 
The  percipient  was  a  youth  named  Wells,  at  the  time 
of  the  experiments  a  baker's  apprentice.  He  was 
hypnotised  by  Mr.  G.  A.  Smith.  During  the  trials 
Wells  was  blindfolded,  and  Mr.  Smith  stood  behind 
his  chair.  On  the  first  evening  Mr.  Smith  held  one 
of  the  percipient's  hands ;  and  throughout  the  series 
it  was  necessary  for  Mr.  Smith  to  hold  communication 
with  Wells ;  the  only  words  used,  however,  being 
the  simple  uniform  question,  "Do  you  feel  any- 
thing?"! 

No.  ii. — By  EDMUND  GURNEY. 

First  Series.    Jaiiuary  4///,  1883. 

1.  The  upper  part  of  Mr.  Smith's  right  arm  was  pinched  con- 

tinuously.    Wells,  after  an  interval  of  about  two  minutes, 
began  to  rub  the  corresponding  part  on  his  own  body. 

2.  Back  of  the  neck  pinched.     Same  result. 

3.  Calf  of  left  leg  slapped.     Same  result. 

1  It  is  a  frequent  experience  that  hypnotised  subjects  are  incapable  of 
responding  to  any  voice  other  than  that  of  the  person  who  has  hypnotised 
them.  ^  The  difficulty  can,  indeed,  generally  be  removed  by  asking  the 
hypnptiser  to  place  some  other  person  in  rapport  with  the  subject — i.e., 
to  give  the  subject  the  suggestion  that  he  should  also  be  able  to 
hear  the  person  indicated.  At  this  early  stage  of  our  experiments  it 
would  appear,  however,  that  this  device  had  for  some  reason  not  been 
adopted. 


TRANSFERENCE  IN   HYPNOTIC   STATE.  6 1 

4.  Lobe  of  left  ear  pinched.     Same  result. 

5.  Outside  of  left  wrist  pinched.     Same  result. 

6.  Upper  part  of  back  slapped.     Same  result. 

7.  Hair  pulled.    Wells  localised  the  pain  on  his  left  arm. 

8.  Right  shoulder  slapped.    The  corresponding  part  was  cor- 

rectly indicated. 

9.  Outside  of  left  wrist  pricked.     Same  result. 

10.  Back  of  neck  pricked.     Same  result. 

11.  Left  toe  trodden  on.     No  indication  given. 

12.  Left  ear  pricked.    The   corresponding  part  was  correctly 

indicated. 

13.  Back  of  left  shoulder  slapped.     Same  result. 

14.  Calf  of  right  leg  pinched.     Wells  touched  his  arm. 

15.  Inside  of  left  wrist  pricked.     The  corresponding  part  was 

correctly  indicated. 

16.  Neck  below  right  ear  pricked.     Same  result. 

In  the  next  series  of  these  experiments  Wells  was  blindfolded, 
as  before ;  but  in  this  case  a  screen  was  interposed  between 
Mr.  Smith  and  Wells  ;  and  there  was  no  contact  between 
them.  During  two  or  three  of  the  trials  Mr.  Smith  was  in  an 
adjoining  room,  separated  from  Wells  by  thick  curtains. 

Second  Series.     April  loth,  1883. 

17.  Upper  part  of  Mr.  Smith's  left  ear  pinched.     After  a  lapse 

of  about  two  minutes,  Wells  cried  out,  "  Who's  pinching 
me  ? "  and  began  to  rub  the  corresponding  part. 

1 8.  Upper  part  of  Mr.  Smith's  left  arm  pinched.     Wells  indi- 

cated the  corresponding  part  almost  at  once. 

19.  Mr.  Smith's  right  ear  pinched.     Wells  struck  his  own  right 

ear,  after  the  lapse  of  about  a  minute,  as  if  catching  a 
troublesome  fly,  crying  out,  "  Settled  him  that  time." 

20.  Mr.  Smith's  chin  was  pinched.     Wells  indicated  the  right 

part  almost  immediately. 

21.  The  hair  at  the  back  of  Mr.  Smith's  head  was  pulled.     No 

indication. 

22.  Back  of  Mr.  Smith's  neck  pinched.     Wells  pointed,  after  a 

short  interval,  to  the  corresponding  part. 

23.  Mr.  Smith's  left  ear  pinched.     Same  result. 

After  this,  Mr.  Smith  being  now  in  an  adjoining  room,  Wells 
began,  as  he  said,  "  to  go  to  sleep  ; "  and  said  that  he  "  didn't 
want  to  be  bothered."  He  was  partially  waked  up,  and  the 
experiments  were  resumed. 

[Four  experiments  with  tastes  are  here  omitted.] 

28.  Mr.  Smith's  right  calf  pinched.  Wells  was  very  sulky,  and 
for  a  long  time  refused  to  speak.  At  last  he  violently 
drew  up  his  right  leg,  and  began  rubbing  the  calf. 


62  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

After  this  Wells  became  still  more  sulky,  and  refused  in  the 
next  experiment  to  give  any  indication  whatever.  With  con- 
siderable acuteness  he  explained  the  reasons  for  his  contumacy. 
"  I  ain't  going  to  tell  you,  for  if  I  don't  tell  you,  you  won't  go 
on  pinching  me.  You  only  do  it  to  make  me  tell."  Then  he 
added,  in  reply  to  a  remonstrance*  from  Mr.  Smith,  "  What  do 
you^  want  me  to  tell  for  ?  they  ain't  hurting you^  and  /can  stand 
their  pinching.'1  All  this  time  Mr.  Smith's  left  calf  was  being 
very  severely  pinched. 

To  the  onlooker  the  situation  was  rendered  addi- 
tionally piquant  by  the  fact  that  the  boy,  at  the  very 
time  when  he  was  apparently  acutely  sensitive  to  pain 
inflicted  upon  Mr.  Smith,  showed  no  sign  of  suscept- 
ibility when  any  part  of  his  own  person  was  pretty 
severely  maltreated.  The  only  point  in  the  trials 
which  seems  to  call  for  special  notice  is  the  failure  on 
two  occasions  to  indicate  the  seat  of  pain  when  the 
agent's  hair  was  pulled  (7  and  21).  Numerous  trials 
with  the  same  and  other  percipients  have  shown  that 
this  particular  experiment  rarely  succeeds,  possibly 
because  the  pain  so  caused  is  with  many  people  not 
of  an  acute  kind.1 

Transference  of  Visual  Images. 

But  when  we  leave  these  experiments  in  the 
transfer  of  the  less  specialised  forms  of  sensation  we 
find  that  but  few  observers  have  paid  attention  to 
the  phenomena  of  telepathy  in  the  hypnotic  state. 
Probably  this  is  in  some  measure  due  to  one  or  two 
initial  difficulties  in  conducting  experiments  on  'such 
subjects.  Opening  the  eyes  to  permit  the  subject  to 
reproduce  a  diagram  will  in  many  cases  have  the  effect 
of  wakening  him.  Again,  with  some  persons  it  is  a 
matter  of  difficulty  to  maintain  the  exact  stage  of  the 
hypnotic  trance  when  they  are  quiescent  enough  for 
the  alien  impression  to  meet  with  little  risk  of  disturb- 
ance from  the  subject's  own  mental  activities,  and  yet 

1  Cf.  No.  19  in  the  series  of  similar  trials  conducted  with  Miss  Relph. 
P.  24. 


TRANSFERENCE  IN   HYPNOTIC  STATE.  63 

sufficiently  alert  to  prevent  them  from  relapsing,  as 
was  frequently  the  case  with  Wells,  the  percipient 
just  referred  to,  into  a  torpid  sleep  from  which  no 
further  response  could  be  elicited.  But,  after  all,  these 
difficulties  when  they  occur  can  readily  be  overcome 
by  the  exercise  of  a  little  patience.  If  the  study  of 
thought-transference  in  the  hypnotic  state  has  been 
comparatively  neglected,  it  is  mainly  because,  as 
already  suggested,  with  most  persons  the  more  salient 
phenomena  of  the  trance — hallucination,  anaesthesia, 
rigidity,  etc. — have  distracted  attention  from  what  may 
ultimately  prove  to  be  a  more  fruitful  line  of  inquiry. 
For  the  following  record  we  are  indebted  to  Dr. 
Li£beault,  of  Nancy,  who  sent  us  the  account  in  1886. 

No.  12. — By  DR.  LIEBEAULT. 

[The  first  series  of  experiments  were  made  on  the  afternoon  of 
the  loth  December  1885,  in  Dr.  Lidbeault's  house  at  Nancy. 
There  were  present,  in  addition,  Madame  S.,  Dr.  Brullard,  and 
Professor  Lilgeois,  who  acted  as  agent,  and  Mademoiselle  M., 
the  subject.  The  subject  was  hypnotised  by  Professor  Lidgeois, 
and  experiments  were  made  with  diagrams,  and  in  two  cases  the 
design — a  water-bottle  (carafe)  and  a  table  with  a  drawer  and 
drawer-knob — was  reproduced  with  exactness.  Precautions 
had,  of  course,  been  taken  to  conceal  the  original  design  from 
the  percipient.  The  account  of  the  seventh  and  last  experiment 
is  quoted  in  full.] 

"7.  M.  Lidgeois  wrote  the  word  mariage,  Mdlle.  M.  then 
wrote  '  Monsieur.'  Then  she  said  '  Decanter,— no — picture — 
no.'  [What  is  the  letter?]  '  It  is  an  /—no,  it  is  an  m.'  Then 
after  thinking  for  some  minutes,  *  There  is  an  i  in  the  word,  an  a 
after  the  m — a  g — another  a— an  e — there  are  six  letters — no 
— seven.'  When  she  had  found  all  the  letters  and  their  places, 
ma  iage,  she  could  not  find  the  letter  r.  After  a  few  minutes  it 
was  suggested  to  her  that  she  should  try  combinations  with  the 
different  consonants,  and  finally  she  wrote  mariage* 

[Further  experiments  were  made  by  Dr.  Lidbeault,  in  con- 
junction with  M.  Stanislas  de  Guaita,  on  the  Qth  January  1886. 
The  subject  in  this  case  was  Mademoiselle  Louise  L.,  who 
was  hypnotised  by  Dr.  Lie*beault.  The  first  two  experiments, 
which  are  not  quoted  here,  suggest  lip-reading  or  unconscious 
audition  as  a  possible  explanation ;  but  the  third  experiment 
of  this  series  and  the  two  subsequent  trials  with  Mdlle.  Camille 


64  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

Simon  present  interesting  illustrations  of  a  telepathic  hallucin- 
ation superimposed  upon  a  basis  of  reality.] 

"3.  Dr.  Lidbeault,  in  order  that  no  hint  should  be  given  even 
in  a  whisper,  wrote  on  a  piece  of  paper,  t  Mademoiselle,  on 
waking,  will  see  her  black -hat  transformed  into  a  red  one.'  The 
paper  was  first  passed  round  to  all  the  witnesses,  then  MM. 
Liebeault  and  De  Guaita  placed  their  hands  silently  on  the 
subject's  forehead,  mentally  formulating  the  sentence  agreed 
upon.  After  being  told  she  would  see  something  unusual  in  the 
room,  the  young  woman  was  awakened.  Without  a  moment's 
hesitation  she^fixed  her  eyes  upon  the  hat,  and  with  a  burst  of 
laughter  exclaimed  that  it  was  not  her  hat,  she  would  have  none 
of  it.  It  was  the  same  shape  certainly,  but  this  farce  had  lasted 
long  enough— we  must  really  give  her  back  her  own.  ['  Come 
now,  what  difference  do  you  see?']  'You  know  quite  well. 
You  have  eyes  like  me.'  ['  Well  what  ? ']  We  had  to  press  her 
for  some  time  before  she  would  say  what  change  had  come  over 
her  hat ;  surely  we  were  making  fun  of  her.  At  last  she  said, 
'  You  can  see  for  yourselves  that  it  is  red.'  As  she  refused  to 
take  it  we  were  forced  to  put  an  end  to  her  hallucination  by 
telling  her  that  her  hat  would  presently  resume  its  usual  colour. 
The  doctor  breathed  on  it,  and  when  it  became,  in  her  eyes,  her 
own  again,  she  consented  to  take  it  back.  Directly  afterwards 
she  remembered  nothing  of  her  hallucination.  .  .  . 

"Nancy,  Qth  January  1886. 

"  Signed,     A.  A.  LI&BEAULT. 

STANISLAS  DE  GUAITA."  * 

"  We  had  one  very  successful  experiment  with  a  young  girl  of 
about  fifteen,  Mdlle.  Camille  Simon,  in  the  presence  of  M.  Brullard 
and  several  other  persons.  I  gave  her  a  mental  suggestion 
that  on  waking  she  should  see  her  hat,  which  was  brown, 
changed  to  yellow.  I  then  put  her  en  rapport  with  all  the 
others,  and  I  passed  round  a  slip  of  paper  indicating  my  sug- 
gestion, and  asking  them  to  think  of  the  same  thing.  But,  by 
a  lapse  of  memory  not  unusual  to  me,  I  did  not  think  after  all 
of  the  colour  which  I  had  written  down ;  I  had  a  distinct  im- 
pression that -she  would  see  her  hat  red.  On  awaking  her  I 
told  her  she  would  see  something  representing  our  common 
thought.  When  she  was  wakened  she  wondered  at  the  colour 
of  her  hat.^  'It  was  brown,'  she  said.  After  having  thought 
for  a  long  time,  she  assured  us  that  really  it  did  not  look  at  all 
the  same,  that  she  could  not  quite  define  the  colour,  but  that  it 
seemed  to  her  a  sort  of  yellow-red.  Then  I  remembered  my 

1  Quoted  in  Le  Sommeil  Provoqn^  etc^  by  Dr.  Liebeault,  Paris, 
1889,  pp.  295,  296. 


TRANSFERENCE   IN    HYPNOTIC  STATE.  65 

aberration.  In  the  present  case  the  others  thought  of  yellow, 
I  of  red  :  thus  the  object  appeared  yellow  and  red  to  the 
awakened  somnambule ;  which  proves  that  the  mental  sug- 
gestion may  be  the  echo  of  the  thought  of  many  minds." 

[The  following  experiment,  made  with  the  same  "  subject,"  and 
sent  to  us  by  Dr.  Liebeault  on  June  3,  1886,  is  an  interesting 
example  of  temporary  latency  of  the  telepathic  impression  : — ] 

"In  another  experiment  with  the  same  young  girl  it  was 
suggested  to  her,  mentally,  by  several  persons  that  on  awaking 
she  would  see  a  black  cock  walking  about  the  room.  For  a 
considerable  time  after  waking,  neaily  half-an-hour,  she  said 
nothing,  although  I  told  her  she  would  see  something.  It  was 
about  half-an-hour  afterwards  that,  having  gone  into  the  garden 
and  looked  by  chance  into  my  little  courtyard,  she  came 
running  back  to  us  to  say,  'Ah,  I  know  what  I  was  to  see  :  it 
was  a  black  cock.  This  came  into  my  head  when  I  was  looking 
at  your  cock.3  My  cock  is  greenish-black  on  the  wings,  tail 
and  breast ;  everywhere  else  he  is  yellowish-white.  Here  we 
have  an  iciea  caused  by  the  sight  of  a  real  object  associated 
with  a  fictitious  idea  mentally  transmitted  by  the  persons 
present." 

Between  the  beginning  of  July  and  the  end  of 
October  1889  a  series  of  trials  in  the  transference 
of  numbers  was  conducted  by  Mrs.  H.  Sidgwick,  with 
the  assistance  of  Professor  Sidgwick  and  Mr.  G.  A. 
Smith.  The  conditions  were  as  follows: — Some  small 
wooden  counters,  belonging  to  a  game  called  Loto, 
and  having  the  numbers  from  10  to  90  stamped  on 
them  in  raised  figures,  were  placed  in  a  bag.  From 
this  bag,  which  it  will  be  seen  contained  81  numbers 
in  all,  Mr.  G.  A.  Smith  drew  a  counter,  placing  it  in  a 
little  wooden  box,  the  edges  of  which  effectually 
concealed  it  from  the  view  of  the  percipient.  The 
percipient,  who  had  been  previously  placed  in  the 
hypnotic  state  by  Mr.  Smith,  sat  with  his  eyes  closed 
and  guessed  the  number  drawn.  The  remarks,  if 
any,  made  during  the  experiments,  and  the  results, 
were  recorded  by  Mrs.  Sidgwick.  After  the  first  few 
days  it  was  arranged,  in  order  to  avoid  all  possibility 
of  bias  in  recording  the  numbers,  that  Professor 
Sidgwick  should  draw  the  counter  from  the  bag  and 
hand  it  to  Mr.  Smith,  and  that  Mrs.  Sidgwick  should 

5 


66    APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

be  herself  ignorant  of  the  number  drawn.  Through- 
out the  experiments,  although  eight  or  more  other 
persons  tried  to  act  as  agent,  Mr.  Smith  alone  was 
successful.  Mr.  Smith  himself  failed  to  produce  any 
result  when  the  percipients  were  not  hypnotised. 
The  following  detailed  account  of  part  of  the  experi- 
ments on  one  day,  July  6th,  1889,  will  give  a  fair  idea 
of  the  whole  ;  but  it  should  be  added  that  in  later 
experiments  Mr.  Smith  kept  complete  silence,  and 
that  on  several  occasions  a  newspaper  was  placed 
over  R's  head.  These  precautions  do  not  appear  to 
have  affected  the  success  of  the  experiment. 

The  percipient  was  Mr.  P.,  a  clerk  in  a  wholesale 
business,  aged  about  nineteen,  who  had  been  fre- 
quently hypnotised  by  Mr.  Smith,  and  now  passes 
into  the  hypnotic  state  very  quickly,  his  eyes  turn- 
ing upwards  as  he  goes  off,  before  the  eyelids  close. 
He  is  a  lively  young  man,  with  a  good  deal  of 
humour,  and  preserves  the  same  character  in  the 
sleep-waking  state. 

No  13. — By  PROFESSOR  and  MRS.  SIDGWICK. 

1  NUMBER  OUESSKI),   AND   UOIYUKS. 

87  ...  S.  :  "Now,  P.,  you're  going  to  see  numbers.  I  shall 
look  at  them,  and  you  will  see  them."  P.  (almost 
immediately):  "87.  You  asked  me  if  I  saw  a 
number.  I  see  an  8  and  a  7."  (Number  put 
away.)  P.  :  "  I  see  nothing  now." 

19  ...     P.:  "  18.     What  are  those  numbers  on  ?     I  see  only  the 

letters  like  brass  numbers  on  a  door;  nothing 
behind  them." 

24  ...  P.  (after  a  pause)  :  "  I  keep  on  looking.  .  .  .  I  see  it  ! 
an  8  and  a  4 — 84." 

35  ...  P.  :  "  A  3  and  a  5-35."  S.:  "How  did  that  look?" 
P.:  "  I  saw  a  3  and  a  5,  then  35." 

28  ...  P.:  "88.  One  behind  the  other,  then  one  popped  for- 
ward, and  I  could  see  two  eights."  (Illustrated 
it  with  his  fingers.) 

20  ...     P.:  "  I  can't  see  anything  yet."     S. :"  You  will  directly. " 

P.:  "23."  S. :  "Saw  that  clearly?"  P.: 
"  Not  so  plain  as  the  other."  S.  :  "  Which  did 
you  see  best?  "  P.  :  "The  2." 


TRANSFERENCE   IN    HYPNOTIC  STATE.  67 


HAWN  NUMBER  GUFSSED,  AND  REMARKS. 

27  ...  P.  :  "  I  can  see  7,  and  I  think  a  3  in  front  of  it.  I  can 
see  the  7."  S.  :  "  Make  sure  of  the  first  figure." 
P.  :  "The  7's  gone  now." 

48  ...  S.  :  "  Here's  another  one,  P."  (This  remark,  though  not 
always  recorded,  almost  always  began  each  ex- 
periment, until  July  27th,  when,  to  avoid  the 
possibility  of  unconscious  indications,  Mr.  Smith 
adopted  the  plan  of  not  speaking  at  all.)  P.  : 
"Another  two,  you  mean.  You  say  another 
one,  but  there  are  always  two."  S.  :  "Yes, 
two."  P.:  "  Here  it  is.  You  said  there  were 
two  !  There's  only  one,  an  8."  Some  remarks 
here  not  recorded.  We  think  that  Mr.  Smith 
said  there  were  two,  and  told  him  to  look  again. 
P.  said  he  saw  a  4.  Mrs.  Sidgwick  :  "Which 
came  first?"  P.  :  "The  8  first,  then  the  4  to 
the  left,  so  that  it  would  have  been  48.  I  should 
like  to  know  how  you  do  that  trick." 

20     ...     P.  :  "  A  2  and  an  0  ;  went  away  very  quickly  that  time." 

71     ...     P.  :   "71." 

36     ...     P.  :    "3  ...  36." 

75  ...     P.  :  "I  might  turn  round.     Should  I  see  them  just  the 

same  over  there?  "  (Changed  his  position  so  as 
to  sit  sideways  in  the  chair,  and  looking  away 
from  Mr.  Smith.)  S.  :  "Well,  you  might  try." 
P.  :  "  I  don't  think  I  see  so  well  this  way." 
(He  did  not  move,  however.)  "  I  see  a  7  and  a 
5  —  75.  Why  don't  you  let  them  both  come  at 
once  ?  I  believe  I  should  see  them  better  if  you 
let  me  open  my  eyes."  (No  notice  was  taken  of 
this.) 

17  ...  S.:  "Now  then,  P.,  here's  another."  P.  :"  Put  it  there  at 
once."  (Then,  after  some  time  :)  "  You've  only 
put  a  4  up.  I  see  7."  S.  :  "  What's  the  other 
figure?"  P.  :  "4  ...  the  4's  gone."  S.  : 
"Have  a  look  again."  P.:  "I  see  I  now." 
S.  :  "Which  way  are  they  arranged?"  P.  : 
"  The  1  first  and  the  7  second." 

52  ...  S.  :  "Here's  another."  P.  :  "52.  I  saw  that  at  once. 
I'm  sure  there's  some  game  about  it."  (He  had 
said  something  about  this  before,  when  the 
number  was  slow  in  coming.  He  said  Mr. 
Smith  was  making  game  of  him,  and  pretending 
to  look  when  he  was  not  looking.) 

76  ...     P.  :  "76." 

It  will  be  observed  that  P.  always  speaks  of  "see- 
ing" the  figures,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  his  eyes  were 
closed,  or  appeared  to  be  closed,  throughout  the  experi- 


68  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

ments,  and  the  pupils,  as  already  stated,  were  intro- 
verted, at  least  at  the  commencement  of  the  trance. 
That  the  impression  was  of  a  visual  nature  there  can 
be  no  reasonable  doubt.  This  may  have  been  due 
to  Mrs.  Sidgwick's  suggestion  to  the  percipient  that  he 
would  see  the  figures  :  though  it  seems  equally  probable 
that  it  was  owing  to  the  fact  that  Mr.  Smith's  impres- 
sion was  a  visual  one.  That  the  vision  in  most  cases 
was  perfectly  distinct  seems  equally  clear,  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  decide  whether  impressions  received  under  such 
circumstances,  with  the  eyes  closed,  are  properly 
to  be  classed  as  hallucinations.1  That  under  appro- 
priate conditions  the  percept  was  capable  of  rising 
to  the  level  of  an  externalised  sensory  hallucination, 
the  following  experiments,  which  took  place  later 
on  the  same  day,  July  6th,  seem  to  show  :  —  A  blank 
sheet  of  paper  was  spread  out  on  the  table.  P.  was 
told  that  he  would  see  numbers  on  it,  and  was  then 
partially  awakened  and  his  eyes  opened.  He  was  at 
once  told  to  look  at  the  paper  and  see  what  came, 
but  saw  nothing  for  some  time.  Different  stages  of 
the  hypnotic  trance  frequently  exhibit  different  and 
mutually  exclusive  memories,  and  P.  now  had 
evidently  forgotten  all  about  the  previous  state  in 
which  he  had  been  guessing  numbers,  and  appeared 
so  wide  awake  that  it  was  hard  to  believe  that  he 
was  not  in  a  completely  normal  condition.  Mr. 
Smith  stood  behind  him. 


NUMBER  SEEN  ON  THE  PAPER,  AND  REMVRKS. 

18     ...     P.  :    "23."      S.  :    "Is  that  what  you  can  see?"      P.  : 

"  Yes"  (but  he  added  later  that  he  did  not  see 

it  properly), 
87     ...     P.  :  "  A  7,  o.     Oh,  no,  8,  78.     Funny  !     I  saw  a  7  and 

a  little  o,  and  then  another  came  on  the  top  of 

it,  and  made  an  8." 
37     ...     P.  :"  There's  a  4,  7."     Asked  where,  he  offered  to  trace 

it,2  and  drew  47  in  figures  \\  inches  long. 

1  For  such  impressions  seen  with  closed  eyes  Kandinsky  has  pro- 
posed the  name  pseudo-hallucinations. 
8  He  had  been,  on  previous  occasions,  asked  to  trace  hallucinations. 


TRANSFERENCE  IN   HYPNOTIC  STATE.  69 

DRAWI?  NUMBER  SEEN  ON  THE  PAPER,  AND  REMARKS. 

44  ...  P.:  "No.  I  see  5,  4;  it's  gone  again."  S.  :  "  All 
right,  look  at  it."  P.  :  "45-"  S.  :  "Sure?" 
P.  :  "  There's  a  4  ; — the  other's  not  so  clear." 
(Then  quickly:)  "  Two  fours  ;  44." 

As  he  looked  one  of  them  disappeared,  and  he  turned  the 
paper  over  to  look  for  it  on  the  other  side  ;  then  looked  back  at 
the  place  where  he  saw  it  before  and  said,  "  That's  funny ! 
while  I  was  looking  for  that  the  other  one's  gone."  When  looking 
under  the  paper  he  noticed  some  scribbling  on  the  sheet  below 
and  said,  "Has  that  writing  anything  to  do  with  it?"  He 
seemed  puzzled  by  the  figures,  which  were  apparently  genuine 
externalised  hallucinations.  He  could  not  make  out  why  they 
came,  nor  why  they  disappeared. 

37  ...  P.  (after  lon^  gazing):  "37."  S.  :  "Is  that  what  you 
sec?"  P.  :  "  It's  gone.  I'm  pretty  sure  I  saw 
37-" 

Mr.  Smith  then  looked  at  the  37  again,  and  we  told  P.  to 
watch  whether  it  came  back,  but  after  a  little  while  he  said  he 
thought  he  saw  29. 

Similar  trials  were  made  with  three  other  subjects, 
Miss  B.,  T.,  and  W.  In  all  644  trials  were  made  with  the 
agent  in  the  same  room  with  the  percipient,  of  which 
131  were  successful,  that  is,  both  digits  were  given 
correctly,  though  in  14  out  of  the  131  cases  in  reverse 
order.  The  chance  of  success  was  of  course  I  in  81, 
and  the  most  probable  number  of  complete  successes 
was  therefore  8.  218  trials  were  also  made  with  Mr. 
Smith  in  a  different  room  from  the  percipient,  but  of 
these  only  9  succeeded,  one  having  its  digits  reversed; 
8  of  these  successes,  however,  occurred  in  the  course 
of  139  trials  with  P.,  whilst  79  trials  with  T.  yielded 
only  one  success.  (Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  vi.  pp.  123-170.) 

As  regards  the  possibility  of  unconscious  indica- 
tions of  the  number  thought  of  being  given  by  the 
agent,  it  seems  certain  that  no  such  clue  could  have 
been  perceived  through  the  sense  of  sight  or  touch, 
contact  between  agent  and  percipient  having  been 
absolutely  excluded  throughout  the  experiments. 
It  remains  to  consider  whether  any  indication  could 
have  been  given  by  means  of  sounds.  In  the  pres- 


70  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

ence  of  two  or  more  attentive  and  vigilant  witnesses 
any  indications  by  sounds — e.g.,  an  unconscious 
whispering  of  the  number  by  Mr.  Smith— could  only 
have  been  perceived  by  persons  of  abnormal  suscepti- 
bility. We  know,  indeed,  of  no  precise  limit  which 
can^  be  set  to  the  hypcraesthesia  of  hypnotised 
subjects,  But,  on  the  other  hand,  hypersesthesia 
of  any  sense  in  such  subjects  is  generally  the  result 
of  suggestion,  direct  or  indirect,  on  the  part  of  the 
operator;  and  in  these  experiments  the  only  sugges- 
tion given — a  suggestion  apparently  acted  on  through- 
put— was  that  they  should  see  the  result.  Since, 
indeed,  hypnotised  persons  are  apparently  not  neces- 
sarily aware  of  the  channel  by  which  information 
reaches  them,  this  circumstance  is  not  in  itself  con- 
clusive ;  but  taken  with  the  fact  that  no  direct  sug- 
gestion to  hear  was  given,  it  tends  to  make  auditory 
hypcraesthesia  less  probable.  It  is  perhaps  more 
important  to  note  that  the  experimenters,  including 
Mr.  Smith  himself,  were  fully  aware  of  this  source 
of  error,  and  on  their  guard  against  it;  that  no  move- 
ments of  Mr.  Smith's  lips,  such  as  must  have  occurred 
if  he  had  whispered  the  number,  were  observed  ;  and 
that  a  careful  analysis  of  the  failures  shows  no 
tendency  to  mistake  one  number  for  another  similar 
in  sound— e.g.,  four  for  five,  six  for  seven,  or  five  for 
nine. 

Experiments  with  Agent  and  Percipient  in  different 
Rooms. 

However,  the  later  experiments  by  the  same  ob- 
servers, recorded  below,  in  which  a  marked  degree  of 
success  was  obtained  with  agent  and  percipient  in 
different  rooms,  will  no  doubt  be  considered  to  render 
untenable  any  explanation  of  the  kind  above  indicated. 
This  further  series  was  carried  on  through  the  years 
1890-1-2.  Mrs.  Sidgwick,  aided  by  Miss  Johnson, 
conducted  the  experiments  throughout,  with  the 


TRANSFERENCE   IN   HYPNOTIC  STATE.  7 1 

occasional  assistance  of  Professor  Sidgwick,  Dr.  A.  T. 
Myers,  and  others.  The  percipients  were  P.,  T.,  Miss 
B.,  and  three  others,  and  Mr.  G.  A.  Smith  was  in 
nearly  all  cases  the  agent.  Some  of  these  experi- 
ments, as  in  the  last  series,  were  with  numbers  of 
two  digits  ;  but  the  percipient  was  now  in  a  different 
room  from  the  agent.  At  first  the  trials  were 
carried  on  in  an  arch,  fitted  up  with  two  floors,  under 
the  Parade  at  Brighton.  On  the  ground-floor  was 
a  little  lobby,  kitchen,  etc. ;  on  the  upper  floor  a  sitting- 
room  about  15  feet  square.  The  staircase,  which,  as 
shown  in  the  plan  subjoined,  led  directly  out  of  the 
upper  room,  was  not  enclosed  above,  but  had  a  door 


Upstairs 
Room 


Window 


Back  Room 


Kitchen 


Lobby 


—  I  Door  I 


below,  which  was  kept  shut  during  the  experiments. 
The  floor  of  the  room  above  was  covered  with  a  thick 
Axminster  carpet.  Even  so  the  sound-insulation  was 
not  perfect;  but  it  was  found  that  words  spoken  in 
ordinary  conversation  on  one  floor  were  indistinguish- 
able on  the  other  unless  the  ear  was  pressed  against 
the  door  or  wall  of  the  staircase.  In  the  experiments 
carried  on  at  Mrs.  Sidgwick's  lodgings  in  Brighton 
the  percipient  sat  in  the  room  at  a  distance  from  the 
door,  which  was  closed,  varying  from  9  to  1 3  feet,  and 
Mn  Smith  was  in  the  passage  outside,  Miss  Johnson 
sitting  between  him  and  the  door.  Of  course  strict 
silence  was  observed  by  the  agent  One  of  the  ex- 


72  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

perimenters,  in  most  cases  Miss  Johnson,  accompanied 
the  agent,  drew  fhe  number  from  the  bag,  and  noted 
each  as  it  was  drawn.  Mrs.  Sidgwick,  of  course  in 
ignorance  of  the  number  drawn,  sat  by  the  percipient 
and  took  notes  of  his  remarks.  As  in  the  previous 
series,  the  impressions,  received  by  the  percipient, 
who  in  the  first  experiments  was  Miss  B.,  appear 
generally  to  have  been  of  a  visual  nature.  Details 
of  all  the  trials  with  Miss  B.  as  percipient  and  Mr. 
Smith  as  sole  a^cnt  arc  given  in  the  following 
table  :— 

No.  14.— By  MRS.  SIDGWICK  AND  OTHERS. 
(i)  PLACE,  THE  ARCH.    PERCIPIENT  UPSTAIRS  ;  AGENT 

DOWNSTAIRS. 


^ 

1 

Is 

+3 

o 

M 

si) 

Date  1890 

'C 

-2 

2 

ft"^ 

S'C 

g 

S 

Notes. 

'3 

,2 

+a'C 

8t 

fj 

H 

o* 

'So 

S 

3° 

S 

£ 

Jan.     6 

7 

'i 

*i 

6* 
10 

'i 

2 
4 

8 
17 

/Professor  Bairett  present  in  addition  to 
\     the  usual  party. 

8 

it 

2 

3 

0 

This  set  was  done  under  very  unfavour- 

H 

'i 

it 

8 

10 

20 

able  conditions,  as  there  were  three 

!!   12 

Mar.  17 

9 
3 

i 

13 
2 

2 

i 

8 
G 

33 
12 

other  percipients  in  the  room  guessing 
at  the  same  time,  which  was  very  con- 

„   18 

1 

'i 

1 

i 

4 

8 

fusing. 

,,     22 

1 

5 

i 

4 

11 

Drs.  Mjers,  Penrose,  and  Lancaster  pre- 

.,    23 
July    8 

2 

6 

'i 

10 
2 

18 
3 

sent  in  addition  to  the  usual  party. 
Drs.  Myers  and  Rolleston  present  in  addi- 
tion to  the  usual  party. 

,,      9 

_ 

1 

3 

2 

6 

Nov.    0 

'i 

1 

1 

3 

Dr.  Myers  present. 

„     10 

i 

'2 

3 

Totals 

20 

5 

55 

11 

67 

148 

(2)  PLACE,  THE  ARCH.    PERCIPIENT  DOWNSTAIRS  ;  AGENT 
UPSTAIRS. 


War.  17  .. 

4 

1 

13 

18 

„    23  .. 

2 

3 

7 

12 

June  16  .. 

.. 

•  • 

1 

•• 

2 

3 

Miss  McKerlie  present. 

Totals 

•• 

" 

7 

4 

22 

33 

*  Two  of  these  were  Riven  completely  right  first  and  then  changed. 
t  The  first  digit  of  the  number  drawn  was  guessed  first. 


tRANSFJEREttCfc  IN   HYPNOTIC  STAtE. 


(3)  PLACE,  MRS.  SIDGWICK'S  LODGINGS.     PERCIPIENT  IN 
ROOM,  AND  AGENT  IN  PASSAGE. 


^j 

15 

o 

*    . 

Date  1890 

(cp 

rever 

5  -a 

•d'B 
s  >, 

I 

oi 

3 

o 

Notes. 

'3 

To 

1 

8| 

* 

H 

Mar.  19  . 

1 

.2 

3 

Dee.  17  . 

0 

11 

2 

12 

27 

These  guessos  weie  made  by  table-tilt.  ng, 

Mi.ss  R  notm.il,  having  her  hands  on 

the  table.     Mi^  Robertson  present  on 

December  17,  19,  and  20.  § 

,,     19  . 

?, 

1 

X 

1 

7 

„     ID  . 

1 

4 

5 

Agent  in  room  across  passage,  but  only  one 
of  the  two  intervening  doors  closed. 

/ 

1 

1 

o 

4 

/Guesses    made    veibally    by    Miss    15. 

1     hypnotised,  bavins;  her  hands  on  the 

„     "0  - 

4     table. 

! 

1 

1 

o 

4 

Guesses  tilted  by  the  table,  at  the  same 
V    time  as  the  above.  § 

„     20 

1 

1 

1 

4 

7 

Miss  15.  hypnotised,  guessing  in  the  usual 

way. 

1 

It 

4 

2 

6 

14 

Guesses  made  by  table-tilting,  Miss  15.  nor- 
mal, having  her  hands  on  the  table.  § 

Totals 

7 

X 

23 

8 

30 

71 

Totals  of 

(1)(2)  A  ((\) 

27 

8 

85 

23 

109 

252 

together 

J  This  was  given  completely  right  first  and  then  changed. 
§  See  Chapter  iv.,  pp.  90-100. 

It  will  be  seen  that  in  252  trials  the  number  was 
guessed  quite  correctly  27  times,  and  with  digits  in 
reverse  order  8  times — the  most  probable  number  of 
complete  successes  by  chance  being  3.  Further,  in 
the  unsuccessful  trials  the  first  digit  was  correctly 
guessed  no  fewer  than  85  times.  The  proportion  of 
successes  in  a  series  of  trials  carried  on  during  the 
same  period  with  Mr.  Smith  in  the  same  room  with 
Miss  B.  was,  however,  much  higher — viz.,  29  (three 
with  digits  reversed)  out  of  146  trials.  It  is  notice- 
able that  in  the  short  series  of  trials  with  Miss  B.  in 
the  lobby  downstairs  a  very  much  smaller  degree  of 
success  was  obtained,  a  result  attributed  by  Mrs. 
Sidgwick  to  the  percipient's  feeling  ill  at  ease  in  her 
surroundings. 

Another  noteworthy  point  is  the  large  proportion 


74  APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

of  cases  in  which  the  first  digit  was  correctly  named.1 
This  disproportion  is  not  found  in  the  trials  made 
with  the  agent  and  the  percipient  in  the  same  room, 
and  is  possibly  due,  as  suggested  by  Mrs.  Sidgwick, 
to  Mr.  Smith  in  all  cases  concentrating  his  attention 
originally  on  the  first  digit.  When  in  the  same  room 
with  the  percipient  he  would  hear  when  the  first  digit 
had  been  named,  and  would  then  turn  his  attention  to 
the  other;  but  when  out  of  the  room  he  could  not, 
of  course,  follow  the  process  of  guessing. 

A  further  series  of  trials  was  conducted  with  the 
percipient  under  the  same  conditions,  except  that 
either  P.  or  T.  acted  as  agents  jointly  with  Mr. 
Smith.  In  all  53  trials  were  made,  resulting  in  9 
complete  successes  and  two  with  the  digits  reversed. 
The  proportion  of  successes,  it  will  be  seen,  is  much 
higher  than  in  the  experiments  first  described ;  but 
the  series  is  too  short  to  allow  of  a  safe  conclusion 
being  drawn  as  to  the  superior  efficacy  of  collective 
agency. 

Experiments  conducted  under  similar  conditions 
with  four  other  percipients  yielded  a  slight  but 
appreciable  measure  of  success.  A  large  number 
of  trials — nearly  400  in  all — were  made  with  Miss 
B.  as  percipient,  the  agent  or  agents  being  at  a 
still  greater  distance — viz.,  being  either  in  a  separate 
building,  or  with  two  closed  doors  and  a  passage 
intervening;  but  practically  no  success  was  obtained. 
Miss  B.  complained  of  the  numbers  being  so  far  off. 
"  They  arc  all  muddled  up,"  she  said  on  one  occasion ; 
"they  seem  miles  off."  It  is  not  easy  to  account 
satisfactorily  for  this  failure,  but  it  may  probably 
be  attributed  partly  to  a  prejudicial  effect  exercised 
by  the  novel  conditions  on  the  agent's  or  percipient's 
anticipation  of  success,  and  partly  to  the  tedious 

1  As  all  numbers  above  90  were  excluded,  and  as  o  cannot  come  first, 
the  first  digit  should,  by  pure  chance,  have  been  correctly  named  more 
often  than  the  second;  but  the  disproportion,  it  will  be  seen,  is  far 
greater  than  could  be  thus  accounted  for. 


TRANSFERENCE   IN    HYPNOTIC   STATE.  7$ 

waiting  inseparable  from  experiments  of  this  kind, 
where  there  is  no  ready  means  of  communication 
at  the  end  of  each  trial.  (Proc.  S.P.R.y  vol.  viii.  pp. 
S36-5S2.) 

Transference  of  Mental  Pictures. 

•    By  MRS.  SlDGWICK  and  Miss  JOHNSON. 

Later  on,  after  various  trials  had  been  made  with 
little  success  with  letters,  playing  cards,  and  diagrams, 
a  series  of  experiments  was  made  in  the  transference 
of  mental  pictures.  There  were  in  all  108  trials,  with 
5  percipients — Miss  B.,  P.,  and  T.,  and  two  men, 
Whybrew  and  Major,  who  had  been  subjects  of  an 
itinerant  lecturer  on  Hypnotism.  The  method  of 
experiment  was  as  follows  : — A  subject  for  a  picture 
was  written  down  by  Mrs.  Sidgwick  or  Miss  Johnson 
and  handed  to  Mr.  Smith,  who  then  summoned  up  a 
mental  representation  of  the  subject  suggested,  which 
he  tried  to  transfer  to  the  percipient.  Occasionally, 
to  aid  his  imagination,  he  drew  on  paper  a  rough 
sketch  of  the  subject.  During  the  experiment  Mr. 
Smith  was  sometimes  close  to  the  percipient,  some- 
times behind  a  screen,  sometimes  in  another  room. 

When  in  the  same  room  it  was  occasionally  neces- 
sary for  Mr.  Smith,  in  order  to  keep  alive  the  per- 
cipients interest  and  attention,  to  say  a  few  words  to 
him  from  time  to  time.  These  remarks  were  always 
recorded.  In  the  earlier  experiments  the  percipient's 
eyes  were  open,  and  he  was  given  a  white  card  or  a 
crystal  to  look  at  ;  and  he  appears  to  have  seen  the 
pictures  as  if  projected  on  these  objects.  In  the  later 
trials  the  percipient's  eyes  were  closed,  but  this  change 
in  the  conditions  docs  not  appear  in  any  way  to  have 
affected  the  vividness  of  the  impressions. 

Successful  experiments  were  made  with  all  five 
percipients,  full  details  of  which  will  be  found  in 
the  paper  referred  to.1  It  will  suffice  here  to  quote 

1  Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  viii.  pp.  554-577. 


j6    APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

a    few    illustrative    cases    of   success,  •  complete    or 
partial. 

The  first  experiments  were  made  on  July  9th,  1890. 
Miss  B.  was  the  percipient  I  quote  the  account  of 
the  first  two  trials  : — 

N®.  15. 

The  percipient,  being  in  a  hypnotic  trance,  had  her  eyes 
opened  and  was  given  a  card  and  told  to  look  out  for  a  picture 
which  would  come  on  it. 

The  subject,  chosen  by  Mrs.  Sidgwick,  was  a  little  boy 
with  a  ball.  Mr.  Smith  sat  close  to  Miss  B.,  but  neither 
spoke  to  her  nor  touched  her.  Miss  B.  presently  said:  "A 
figure  is  coming — a  little  boy."  Mrs.  Sidgwick  asked  what  he 
had  in  his  hand,  and  Miss  B.  replied  :  "A  round  thing ;  a  ball,  I 
suppose." 

For  the  next  experiment  Mr.  Smith  got  behind  a  screen. 
The  subject,  a  kitten  in  a  jar,  was  again  set  by  Mrs.  Sidgwick. 
Miss  B.  said  :  "  Something  like  an  old  cat— a  cat— I  think  it's  a 
cat."  Mrs.  Sidgwick:  "What  is  the  cat  doing?"  Miss  B. 
(doubtfully):  " Sitting  down."  Mrs.  Sidgwick:  "  Is  there  any- 
thing else  but  a  cat?"  Miss  B. :  "No;  only  scratches  about." 

In  all  21  experiments  of  the  kind  were  tried  with 
Miss  B.,  of  which  8,  including  the  two  above  recorded, 
may  be  classed  as  more  or  less  successful. 

The  following  experiments  were  made  with  P.  on 
November  5th,  1890.  The  notes  of  these  cases  were 
taken  by  Miss  Johnson,  who  was  herself  ignorant  of 
the  subject,  which  was  chosen  by  Mrs.  Sidgwick. 

The  first  experiment  on  this  day  was  a  failure. 

No.  1 6. 

Subject :  A  black  kitten  playing  with  a  cork.  P. :  "  Some- 
thing like  a  cat;  it's  a  cat."  Mrs.  Sidgwick:  "What  is  it 
doing  ?"  P. :  "  Something  it's  been  feeding  out  of— some  milk, 
is  it  a  saucer?  Can't  see  where  its  other  paw  is— only  see  three 
paws." 

Subject :  A  sandwich  man  with  advertisement  of  a  play.  P. 
said:  "Something  like  letter  A— stroke  there,  then  there." 
Mrs.  Sidgwick :  "  Well,  perhaps  it  will  become  clearer."  P. : 
"  Something  like  a  head  on  the  top  of  it ;  a  V  upside  down- 
two  legs  and  then  a  head.— A  man  with  two  boards— looks  like 
a  man  that  goes  about  the  streets  with  two  boards.  I  can  see 


TRANSFERENCE   IN    HYPNOTIC  STATE.  77 

a  head  at  the  top  and  the  body  and  legs  between  the  boards. 
I  couldn't  see  what  was  written  on  the  boards,  because  the 
edges  were  turned  towards  me."  Mr.  Smith  told  us  afterwards 
that  he  had  pictured  to  himself  the  man  and  one  board  facing 
him,  thus  not  corresponding  to  the  impression  which  P.  had. 

Subject :  A  choir-boy -,1  P.  said :  "  Edge  of  card's  going  a  dark 
colour.  Somebody  dressed  up  in  white,  eh  ?  Can  see  some- 
thing all  white  ;  edge  all  black,  and  like  a  figure  in  the  middle. 
There's  his  hands  up"  (making  a  gesture  to  show  the  attitude) 
"like  a  ghost  or  something—you  couldn't  mistake  it  for  any- 
thing but  a  ghost.  It's  not  getting  any  better,  it's  fading— no, 
it's  still  there.  It  might  frighten  any  one."  He  also  made 
remarks  about  the  difficulty  of  seeing  a  white  figure  on  a  white 
card  (the  blank  card  he  was  looking  at  was  white),  which  Mr. 
Smith  afterwards  said  corresponded  with  his  own  ideas. 

Subject;  A  vase  with  flowers.  (Mr.  Smith,  still  behind  P., 
was  looking  at  a  blue  flower-pot  in  the  window  containing  an 
indiarubber  plant.)  P.  said :  "  I  see  something  round,  like  a 
round  ring.  I  can  see  some  straight  things  from  the  round 
thing.  I  think  it's  a  glass— it  goes  up.  I'll  tell  you  what  it  is ;  it 
must  be  a  pot — a  flower-pot,  you  know,  with  things  growing  in 
it.  I  only  guessed  that,  because  you  don't  see  things  growing 
out  of  a  glass. — It's  not  clear  at  the  top  yet.  You  see  something 
going  up  and  you  can't  see  the  top,  because  of  the  edge  of  the 
paper — it's  cut  off.  I  don't  wonder,  because  it's  no  good  wonder- 
ing what  Mr.  Smith  does,  he  does  such  funny  things.  I  should 
fancy  it  might  be  a  geranium,  but  there's  only  sticks,  so  you 
can't  tell."  Mrs.  Sidgwick:  "What  colour  is  the  pot?"  P.  : 
"  Dark  colour,  between  terra-cotta  and  red — dark  red  you'd 
call  it."  Here  the  somewhat  confused  impression,  apparently 
corresponding  to  the  struggle  of  ideas  in  Mr.  Smith's  mind 
between  what  he  was  seeing  and  what  he  was  trying  to  think  of, 
is  an  interesting  point.2 

In  all  50  trials  were  made  with  P.,  26  with  agent 
and  percipient  in  the  same  room,  24.  with  agent  and 
percipient  in  different  rooms.  Of  the  former  14  were 
successful,  of  the  latter  only  one.  In  the  35  unsuccess- 
ful experiments  no  impression  at  all  was  received  in 
14  cases,  7  of  which  occurred  while  agent  and  per- 
cipient were  in  the  same  room. 

Two  trials  with  Whybrew  are  worth  quoting  as 
illustrating  the  gradual  development  of  the  impression. 

1  This  was  an  idea  extremely  familiar  to  P.,  who  had  been  a 
chorister  and  was  still  connected  with  the  choir  of  his  church. 
a  Proceedings  Soc.  Psych.  Research^  vol.  viii.  pp.  565,  566, 


78  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

The    percipient's    eyes    were     closed    during    these 
experiments.     The  first  was  made  on  July  nth. 

No.  17. 

Subject :  A  man  riding.  Mr.  Smith  downstairs  with  Miss 
Johnson  ;  Whybrew,  upstairs  with  Mrs.  Sidgwick,  said,  after 
some  remarks  on  the  former  pictures :  "  There's  another  one 
— I  think  it's  like  the  other  two — a  puzzle  [to  see]— if  I  can 
find  the  picture.  I  hope  I'll  be  able  to  see  it  properly.  A  kind 
of  a  square — square  shadow — blowed  if  I  can  understand  what 
it's  meant  for — I  don't  know  what  to  make  out  of  that.  I  don't 
know  if  that's  meant  to  be  the  lower  part  of  a  pair  of  legs.  Do 
you  see  a  picture?"  Mrs.  Sidgwick  :  "  I  see  something."  Why- 
brew  •  "  I  see  them  two  spots,  but  I  don't  know  what  to  make 
of  them.  If  they're  legs,  the  body  ought  to  come. — Don't  seem 
to  come  any  brighter,  but  there's  those  two  things  there,  that 
look  like  a  pair  of  legs."  Here  Mr.  Smith  was  asked  to  come 
upstairs  and  talk  to  him.  He  told  him  the  picture  was  coming 
up  closer  and  that  he  had  turned  the  gas  on  to  make  it  brighter. 
Whybrew:  "There's  them  pair  of  legs  there."  Mr.  Smith: 
"Yes"  (doubtfully).  Whybrew:  "Why,  there's  another.  I 
never  see  that  other  pair  before.  Why,  it's  a  horse.  I  expect 
it's  like  them  penny  pictures  that  you  fold  over.  That  horse — 
that's  plain  enough  ;  but  what's  that  other  thing  ?"  Mr.  Smith  : 
"Yes,  I  told  you  there  was  something  else.3;  Whybrew  ;  "  Why, 
I  see  what  it  is  now — it's  supposed  to  be  a  man  there,  I  expect." 
Mr.  Smith  :  "Yes."  Whybrew:  "Riding  him.  But  that  ain't  so 
good  as  the  boy  and  the  ball."  Mrs.  Sidgwick  .  "  How  is  the 
man  dressed ?"  Whybrew:  "Ordinary." 

The  second  took  place  on  July  i6th,  1891. 

Mr.  Smith  having  hypnotised  Whybrew,  sat  by  him,  but 
did  not  speak  to  him  at  all  after  he  knew  the  subject — a  man 
with  a  barrow  of  Jish — given  him  by  Mrs.  Sidgwick.  Miss 
Johnson,  not  knowing  what  the  subject  was,  carried  on  the 
conversation  with  Whybrew.  He  said:  "It's  the  shape  of  a 
man.  Yes,  there's  a  man  there.  Don't  know  him.  He  looks  like 
a  bloke  that  sells  strawberries."  Miss  Johnson  asked :  "Are  there 
strawberries  there  ?  "  Whybrew  .  "  That  looks  like  his  barrow 
there.  What's  he  selling  of?  I  believe  he's  sold  out.  I  can't 
see  anything  on  his  barrow — perhaps  he's  sold  out.  There 
ain't  many — a  few  round  things.  I  expect  they're  fruit.  Are 
they  cherries  ?  They  look  a  bit  red.  Aren't  they  fish  ?  It  don't 
look  very  much  like  fish.  If  they're  fish,  some  of  them  hasn't 
got  any  heads  on.  Barrow  is  a  bit  fishified— it  has  a  tray  on. 
What  colour  are  those  things  on  the  barrow?  They  looked  red, 


TRANSFERENCE   IN    HYPNOTIC  STATE.  79 

but  now  they  look  silvery."     He  was  rather  pleased  with  this 
picture  and  asked  afterwards  if  it  was  for  sale. 

Of  1 8  experiments  with  Whybrew  6  were  successful. 
Of  the  12  failures,  8  occurred  when  agent  and  per- 
cipient were  in  separate  rooms.  There  were  only  two 
cases  in  which  no  impression  was  received — one  with 
the  agent  in  the  same  room. 

Seven  trials  were  made  with  Major,  of  which  I  was 
completely  and  2  partially  successful.  Subjoined  is 
the  record  of  the  only  complete  success,  which  occurred 
on  July  8th,  1891.  The  percipient  was  hypnotised 
and  his  eyes  were  closed  ;  Mr.  Smith  sat  by  him,  talk- 
ing to  him  and  telling  him  that  he  was  to  see  a 
picture. 

No.  1 8. 

The  subject  given  was  a  mouse  in  a  mouse-trap.  Regard- 
ing- himself  as  a  man  of  culture  and  being  generally  anxious  to 
exhibit  this,  Major  asked  if  it  was  to  be  an  old  master  or  a 
modern  "pot-boiler."  He  was  told  the  latter,  and  he  then  dis- 
coursed on  "pot-boilers"  and  how  he  knew  all  the  subjects  of 
them — mentioning  two  or  three — in  a  very  contemptuous  manner. 
He  did  not  seem  "to  sec  anything,  however,  and  appeared  to  be 
expecting  to  see  an  artist  producing  a  rapid  sketch.  Then,  when 
told  that  the  picture  was  actually  there,  he  suddenly  exclaimed : 
"Do  you  mean  that  deuced  old  trap  with  a  mouse?  He  must 
have  been  drawing  for  the  rat  vermin  people." 

Thirty-two  trials  were  made  with  T.,  of  which  only 
four  were  successful — two  completely,  one  partially, 
one  completely,  but  deferred — i.e.,  the  subject  of  the 
preceding  experiment,  a  black  dog,  came  before  his 
vision  after  the  agent  had  already  passed  to  another  sub- 
ject, the  Eiffel  Tower.  T.  had,  of  course,  not  been  told 
the  subject  of  the  previous  experiment.  Instances  of 
deferred  impressions  of  this  kind  occurred  also  with 
Miss  B.  A  few  experiments  were  tried  with  another 
percipient,  a  man  named  Adams,  but  without  success  ; 
his  own  imagination  appeared  to  be  so  fertile  that  any 
telepathic  impression  must  have  been  crowded  out. 

An  analysis  of  the  impressions  showed  that  most  of 


80  APPARITIONS  AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

them  were  reproductions  of  objects  familiar  to  the 
percipient,  in  certain  cases  of  hallucinations  previously 
imposed  upon  them  in  the  course  of  these  or  other 
experiments.  With  some  of  the  successful  percipients 
these  spontaneous  impressions  showed  a  marked  tend- 
ency to  recur.  Thus  P,  had  a  wrong  impression — 
of  an  elephant — no  less  than  four  times  in  the  course 
of  the  experiments;  and  T.  of  a  woman  and  a  peram- 
bulator three  times.  One  of  these  coincided  with  the 
subject  actually  set,  and  the  coincidence  may  perhaps 
therefore  be  attributed  to  chance.  Speaking  gener- 
ally, however,  this  tendency  to  repetition  amongst 
the  percipient's  native  impressions  constitutes  an  addi- 
tional argument,  if  any  such  is  needed,  for  attributing 
the  frequent  coincidences  of  the  impression  with  the 
subject  set  to  some  other  cause  than  the  automatic 
association  of  ideas. 

An  instance  of  a  quasi-experimental  character, 
which  closely  resembles  the  cases  above  described, 
is  recorded  by  Dr,  A.  Gibotteau  : — 1 

No,  19. — By  DR.  GIBOTTEAU. 

"  Madame  P.  complained  of  headache.  I  placed  my  hand 
upon  her  forehead,  and  in  a  few  minutes  she  was  in  a  light 
hypnotic  sleep.  Without  deepening  the  trance  I  endeavoured 
to  give  her  a  sensation  of  calm  and  well-being,  and  to  procure 
this  sensation  for  myself  in  the  first  place,  I  called  up  a  picture 
of  the  sea,  in  which  air  and  water  were  full  of  sunlight.  '  I 
feel  a  little  better,'  she  said  ;  'how  fresh  the  air  is  !'  I  then 
proceeded  to  imagine  myself  walking  along  the  Boulevard  Saint 
Michel^  in  a  slight  rain.  I  saw  the  hurrying  people  and  the 
umbrellas.  *  How  strange  it  is ! '  said  Madame  P. ;  '  I  seem 
to  be  at  the  corner  of  the  Boulevard  Saint  Michel  and  the 
Rue  des  fecoles,  in  front  of  the  Cafe1  Vachette '  (the  exact  spot  I 
pictured) ;  *  it  is  raining,  there  are  a  great  many  people,  a 
hurrying  crowd.  They  are  all  going  up  the  street,  and  I  with 
them.  The  air  is  very  fresh.  It  gives  me  a  pleasant,  restful 
feeling/  With  these  words  she  opened  her  eyes  and  gave  me 
further  confirmation  of  her  impressions. 

"  I  should  add  that  this  scene  took  place  in  the  provinces  j  I 

1  Annales  des  Sciences  PsyMques,  vol.  ii.  pp.  334,  335. 


TRANSFERENCE   IN    HYPNOTIC   STAtE.  &t 

had  not  been  in  Paris  for  some  months,  nor  Madame  P.  for 
several  years. 

"There  had  been  no  mention  of  the  subject  in  the  course  tff 
our  conversation  that  day." 

It  will  be  seen  that  Dr.  Gibotteau  attempted  to 
transfer  to  the  percipient  only  the  general  sensation 
of  calm  and  rest  induced  in  himself  by  the  imagined 
scene,  and  that  the  success  obtained  was  therefore  of 
a  kind  by  no  means  anticipated. 

Another  experiment  of  the  same  nature  is  recorded 
by  Dr.  Blair  Thaw  in  the  article  already  referred  to 
(p.  31).  The  percipient  was  Mrs.  Thaw,  Dr.  Thaw 
and  Mr.  Wyatt  were  the  agents.  We  are  not  told 
whether  in  this  instance,  as  on  some  other  occasions, 
the  percipient  was  actually  hypnotised,  but  judging 
from  previous  experiments  it  may  perhaps  be  inferred 
that  she  was  at  least  in  a  condition  called  by  Dr. 
Thaw  "  a  passive  state,"  not  easy  to  distinguish  from 
the  lighter  stages  of  sleep-waking.  The  experiment 
took  place  on  the  28th  April  1892. 

No.  20. — By  DR.  BLAIR  THAW. 

ist  Scene.  Locomotive  running  away  without  engineer  tears 
up  station. — Missed. 

2nd  Scene.  The  first  real  FLYING  MACHINE  going  over 
Madison  Square  Tower,  and  the  people  watching. — Percipient : 
/  see  lots  of  people.  Crowds  are  going  to  war.  They  are  so 
excited.  Are  they  throwing  water?  (Percipient  said  after- 
wards she  thought  it  was  a  fire  and  that  was  the  reason  of  the 
crowd.)  Or  sailors  pulling  at  ropes.  Agent  said,  "What  are 
they  doing  ? "  Percipient :  They  are  all  looking  up.  It  is  a 
balloon  or  some  one  in  trouble  up  there.  Agent  said,  "  Why 
balloon  ? "  Percipient :  They  are  all  looking  up.  Agent  said, 
"  I  thought  of  a  possible  scene  in  the  future."  Percipient :  <9//, 
ifs  the  first  man  flying.  ThaVs  what  hds  doing  up  there. 
Agent :  "  Where  is  it  ?  "  Percipient :  In  the  city. 

An  account  of  a  similar  instance  of  the  transfer  to 
a  hypnotised  percipient  of  an  imagined  scene  has 
been  recorded  by  Mr.  E.  M.  Clissold  and  Mr.  Auberon 
Herbert1 

i  See  Phantasms  of  the  Living^  vol.  ii.  pp.  677,  678. 

6 


82 


CHAPTER  IV. 

EXPERIMENTAL    PRODUCTION   OF   MOVEMENTS  AND 
OTHER   EFFECTS. 

IN  the  two  preceding  chapters  we  have  discussed 
experiments  where  the  impression  received  by  the 
percipient  may  be  interpreted  as  having  been  a  more 
or  less  accurate  reproduction  of  the  sensation  ex- 
perienced by  the  agent,  or  at  most  a  translation  of  it 
into  some  other  simple  sensation.  There  have  now 
to  be  considered  various  cases  in  which  the  trans- 
mission of  thought  is  productive  of  other  results  in 
the  percipient  than  the  simple  duplication  or  trans- 
lation of  a  sensation.  The  most  usual  case  is  where 
the  telepathic  impulse  leads  to  some  action  on  the 
part  of  the  percipient.  It  was  frequently  stated  by 
the  older  mesmerists1  that  the  operator,  by  a  silent 
act  of  will,  could  induce  a  good  subject  to  do  or 
refrain  from  doing  some  prescribed  or  customary 
action.  Isolated  observations  on  such  a  point  are 
little  likely  to  compel  belief;  the  vanity  or  the 
credulity  of  the  recorder  may  be  supposed  to  have 
led  to  his  overlooking  the  negative  instances,  and 
attributing  to  his  own  peculiar  gifts  a  result  in  reality 
due  to  chance.  But,  following  on  the  clue  thus 

1  Cases  are  recorded  in  the  Zoist  and  other  publications  of  the  period. 
See  the  instances,  quoted  in  Phantasms  of  the  Living^  vol.  i.  pp.  89* 
91,  of  the  Rev.  J.  Lawson  Sisson,  Mr.  Barth,  Mr.  N.  Dunscombe,  and 
Mr.  H.  S.  Thompson.  Traditions  of  the  marvels  wrought  by  the  last- 
named  gentleman  still  linger  in  Yorkshire  society,  and  will  no  doubt 
demand  the  serious  attention  of  future  students  of  folk-lore* 


PRODUCTION   OF   MOVEMENTS.  83 

obtained,  the  Committee  on  Mesmerism  appointed 
by  the  S.P.R.  in  1882,  to  some  of  whose  work 
reference  has  already  been  made  (Chapter  III.,  p.  60), 
succeeded  in  obtaining  results  less  open  to  question. 

Inhibition  of  Action  by  Silent  Willing. 

The  first  experiments  of  the  kind  were  conducted 
on  our  friend  Mr.  Sidney  Beard,  who  was  for  some 
time  an  Associate  of  the  Society  and  took  an  active 
interest  in  its  work.  Mr.  Beard,  who  was  easily 
hypnotised,  would  be  entranced  by  Mr.  Smith,  and 
sit  in  a  chair  with  closed  eyes.  Then,  to  quote  the 
account  of  a  single  experiment,  a  list  of  twelve 
Yeses  and  Noes  in  arbitrary  order  was  written  by 
one  of  ourselves  and  put  into  Mr.  Smith's  hand,  with 
directions  that  he  should  successively  will  the  subject 
to  respond  or  not  to  respond,  in  accordance  with  the 
list.  A  tuning-fork  was  then  struck  and  held  at 
Mr.  Beard's  ear,  and  the  question,  "Do  you  hear?" 
was  asked  by  one  of  ourselves.  This  was  done 
twelve  times  in  succession,  Mr.  Beard  answering  or 
failing  to  answer  on  each  occasion  in  accordance  with 
the  "  yes  "  or  "  no  w  of  the  written  list — that  is  to  say, 
with  the  silent  will  of  the  agent.  Similar  trials  on 
other  occasions  with  Mr.  Beard  were  equally  success- 
ful. The  percipient's  own  account  of  the  matter  is 
as  follows:  "During  the  experiments  of  January  1st 
[1883],  when  Mr.  Smith  mesmerised  me,  I  did  not  lose 
consciousness  at  any  time,  but  only  experienced  a 
sensation  of  total  numbness  in  my  limbs.  When  the 
trial  as  to  whether  I  could  hear  sounds  was  made 
I  heard  the  sounds  distinctly  each  time,  but  in  a 
large  number  of  instances  I  felt  totally  unable  to 
acknowledge  that  I  heard  them.  I  seemed  to  know 
each  time  whether  Mr.  Smith  wished  me  to  say  that 
I  heard  them;  and  as  I  had  surrendered  my  will  to  his 
at  the  commencement  of  the  experiment,  I  was  unable 
to  reassert  my  power  of  volition  whilst  under  his 


84    APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

influence."     (Proceedings  of  the  Soc.  Psych.  Research, 
vol.  i.  p.  256.) 

No.  2i.— By  PROFESSOR  BARRETT, 

Further  trials  of  the  same  kind  were  carried  on 
in  November  1883  by  Professor  Barrett,  at  his  own 
house  in  Dublin.  The  hypnotist  and  agent  was 
again  Mr.  G.  A.  Smkh,  the  percipient  a  youth 
named  Fearnley,  a  stranger  to  Mr.  Smith.  In  the 
first  series  of  trials  Professor  Barrett  asked  Fearnley, 
"  Now  will  you  open  your  hand  ?  "  at  the  same  time 
pointing  to  "  Yes  "  or  "  No,"  written  on  a  card,  and 
held  in  sight  of  Mr.  Smith,  but  out  of  view  from 
the  percipient.  Mr.  Smith,  who  was  not  in  contact 
with  the  subject,  directed  his  silent  will  in  accord- 
ance with  the  written  indication.  In  twenty  experi- 
ments conducted  under  these  conditions  there  were 
only  three  failures  Later,  to  quote  Professor  Barrett, 

"The  experiment  was  varied  as  follows: — The  word  'Yes* 
was  written  on  one,  and  the  word  '  No '  on  the  other,  of  two 
precisely  similar  pieces  of  card.  One  or  other  of  these  cards 
was  handed  to  Mr.  Smith  at  my  arbitrary  pleasure,  care  of 
course  being  taken  that  the  ' subject'  had  no  opportunity  of 
seeing  the  card,  even  had  he  been  awake.  When  '  Yes '  was 
handed  Mr.  Smith  was  silently  to  will  the  '  subject '  to  answer 
aloud  in  response  to  the  question  asked  by  me,  '  Do  you  hear 
me?'  When  <  No'  was  handed  Mr.  Smith  was  to  will  that  no 
response  should  be  made  in  reply  to  the  same  quesiion.  The 
object  of  this  series  of  experiments  was  to  note  the  effect  of 
increasing  the  distance  between  the  wilier  and  the  willed, — the 
agent  and  the  percipient.  In  the  first  instance  Mr.  Smith  was 
placed  three  feet  from  the  '  subject,'  who  remained  throughout 
apparently  asleep  in  an  arm-chair  in  one  corner  of  my  study. 

"At  three  feet  apart,  25  trials  were  successively  made,  and  in 
every  case  the  *  subject'  responded  or  did  not  respond  in  exact 
accordance  with  the  silent  will  of  Mr.  Smith,  as  directed  by  me. 

"  At  6  feet  apart  six  similar  trials  were  made  without  a  single 
failure. 

"At  12  feet  apart  six  more  trials  were  made  without  a  single 
failure. 

"At  17  feet  apart  six  more  trials  were  made  without  a  single 
failure. 


PRODUCTION   OF  MOVEMENTS.  8$ 

"In  this  last  case  Mr.  Smith  had  to  be  placed  outside  the 
study  door,  which  was  then  closed  with  the  exception  of  a 
narrow  chink  just  wide  enough  to  admit  of  passing  a  card  in 
or  out,  whilst  I  remained  in  the  study  observing  the  'subject.' 
To  avoid  any  possible  indication  from  the  tone  in  which  I  asked 
the  question,  in  all  cases  except  the  first  dozen  experiments,  I 
shuffled  the  cards  face  downwards,  and  then  handed  the  un- 
known 'Yes'  or  'No'  to  Mr.  Smith,  who  looked  at  the  card 
and  willed  accordingly.  I  noted  down  the  result,  and  then,  and 
not  till  then,  looked  at  the  card. 

"A  final  experiment  was  made  when  Mr.  Smith  was  taken 
across  the  hall  and  placed  in  the  dining-room,  at  a  distance 
of  about  30  feet  from  the  *  subject,'  two  doors,  both  quite 
closed,  intervening.  Under  these  conditions,  three  trials  were 
made  with  success,  the  'Yes'  response  being,  however,  very 
faint  and  hardly  audible  to  me,  who  returned  to  the  study  to 
ask  the  usual  question  after  handing  the  card  to  the  distant 
operator.  At  this  point,  the  'subject'  fell  into  a  deep  sleep, 
and  made  no  further  replies  to  the  questions  addressed  to  him." 

Further  trials  were  made  under  different  condi- 
tions, the  results  being  almost  uniformly  successful. 

In  interpreting  these  results  there  is  no  justifica- 
tion for  assuming  direct  control  by  the  agent  over 
the  organism  of  the  percipient.  Nor  does  the  current 
phrase,  endorsed  as  it  is  in  the  first  case  by  the  per- 
cipient himself,  that  the  operator's  will  dominated  the 
will  of  the  subject,  give  an  adequate  account  of  the 
matter.  When,  as  in  the  case  of  experiments  pre- 
viously described,  the  percipient's  impression  repro- 
duces the  sensation  of  the  agent,  there  is  nothing  to 
indicate  that  the  impulse  transferred  directly  affects 
the  external  organs,  or  even  the  intermediate  sensory 
centres.  In  the  absence  of  any  direct  evidence  it  is 
at  least  equally  probable  that  the  higher  brain  centres 
only  are  concerned  in  the  transmission  in  the  first 
instance,  and  that  the  transmitted  idea  is  reflected 
downwards,  until  it  actually  assumes,  as  in  some  of 
the  experiments  recorded  with  P.  and  Miss  B.,  the 
form  of  a  sensory  hallucination.  Upon  this  view  no 
fundamental  distinction  need  be  drawn  between  the 
results  before  described  and  those  now  under  discus- 
sion. In  the  latter  case  the  question  is  not  one  of 


86  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

transference  of  will  or  of  a  motor  or  inhibitory 
impulse.  What  is  actually  transferred  from  the 
agent  is  probably  only  a  simple  idea.  Its  subse- 
quent translation  into  action,  or  the  inhibition  of 
action,  is  as  much  the  work  of  the  percipient's  mincl 
as,  in  the  other  case,  the  transformation  of  the  idea  of 
a  number  into  a  visual  hallucination.  As  regards  the 
particular  effect  produced,  it  must  be  remembered 
that  the  prime  characteristic  of  the  hypnotic  state 
is  its  openness  to  suggestion,  and  especially  to 
suggestion  coming  through  a  particular  channel.  It 
is  the  establishment  of  this  suggestible  state,  which 
consists  essentially  in  the  suppression  of  the  control- 
ling faculties  which  normally  pass  judgment  on  the 
suggestions  received  from  without,  and  select  those 
which  are  to  find  response  in  action,  that  Mr.  Beard 
describes  as  the  surrender  of  his  will.  So  that  when 
Mr.  Beard  answered  our  questions  he  did  what  his 
natural  courtesy  led  him  to  do  ;  when  he  maintained 
silence  his  tendency  to  respond  to  the  stimulus  of 
our  questions  was  momentarily  overcome  by  the 
stronger  stimulus  of  the  idea  received  from  the 
agent.  But  the  superior  efficacy  of  the  idea  so 
transferred  resulted  not  from  any  impulsive  quality 
in  the  idea  itself,  but  from  the  previously  established 
relations  between  agent  and  percipient.  The  fact  that 
experiments  of  this  kind  have  rarely  succeeded  in  the 
waking  state  is  no  doubt  due  to  the  inferior  suggesti- 
bility of  that  state, 

Actions  originated  by  Silent  Willing. 

In  the  paper  already  referred  to  (supra,  p.  31)  Dr. 
Blair  Thaw  records  some  experiments  which  present 
us  with  a  modification  of  the  Willing  Game,  but  with- 
out contact.  In  most  of  the  experiments  the  person 
who  was  willed  to  perform  a  certain  action — the 
nature  of  which  had  been  previously  communicated 
to  the  other  experimenters  in  writing — was  in  the 


PRODUCTION  OF  MOVEMENTS.        8/ 

same  room  as  the  agents.  But  the  agents  did  not 
follow  the  percipient  about  the  room,  nor  did  the 
percipient  look  at  the  agents  for  guidance.  The 
percipient  appears  to  have  been  awake  throughout 
the  experiments,  but  it  seems  probable  that  her 
condition  was  not  that  of  complete  normal  wake- 
fulness. 

Of  26  experiments  conducted  under  such  con- 
ditions, i  o  were  completely  and  12  partially  success- 
ful. When,  however,  as  in  this  case,  there  are 
several  agents,  all  of  whom  are  actually  watching  the 
movements  of  the  percipient,  it  is  impossible  to  feel 
convinced  that  no  indication  by  the  movements  of  the 
eyes  or  by  breathing  was  given  to  the  percipient  to 
show  her  whether  or  not  she  was  moving  in  the  right 
direction.  In  the  last  four  trials  of  the  series,  how- 
ever, the  percipient  was  willed  to  fetch  an  object  from 
another  room  which  was  out  of  sight  from  the  agents, 
and  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  that  any  indication  could 
have  been  given  to  her  of  the  object  selected. 

No.  22.  —  By  DR.  BLAIR  THAW. 


April  ^th,  1892. 

Mrs.  Thaw,  Percipient.  Mr.  M.  H.  Wyatt  and  Dr.  Thaw, 
Agents.  In  the  next  four  experiments  an  object  was  selected 
in  another  room,  and  then  the  percipient  sent  in  for  it.  No 
clue  was  given  as  to  what  part  of  the  room. 

\st  Object  Selected.  A  WOODEN  CUPID,  from  a  corner-piece 
in  room  with  eight  other  objects  on  it.  —  Percipient  first  brought 
a  photo  from  the  lower  shelf  of  corner-piece,  then  said  :  "  It's  the 
wooden  Cupid." 

ind  Object.  MATCH-BOX  on  mantel.  —  Percipient  seemed 
confused  at  first  and  brought  two  photos,  then  said  :  "  It's  the 
brass  match-box  on  mantel." 

yd  Object.  A  VELLUM  BOOK  on  table,  among  twenty  other 
books,  chosen  ;  but  a  bag  under  one  window  was  thought  of 
first.  —  Percipient  went  to  table,  put  her  hand  on  the  book,  then 
went  to  the  bag  and  took  it  up,  then  back  to  the  table  and  took 
the  vellum  book  and  then  the  bag,  and  appeared  with  both. 
Percipient  was  in  sight  of  agents  during  this  timCj  but  did  not 
see  them. 


88  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

tfh   Object.      BOOK  on   small  table,   among    ten  others. — 
Missed. 

In  commenting  on  these  experiments,  Dr.  Thaw  is 
himself  inclined  to  attribute  some  of  the  results  to 
"  an  indistinct  motor  impulse  of  some  kind,  leading 
the  percipient  near  the  object."  But  in  the  experi- 
ments above  recorded,  at  any  rate,  it  is  sufficient, 
probably,  to  suppose  the  transference  of  the  idea  of 
the  object. 

Experiments  of  a  somewhat  similar  nature  are 
recorded  by  Dr.  Ochorowicz  (La  Suggestion  mentale, 
pp.  84-1 17).  The  subject  in  this  case,  Madame  M.,  was 
sunk  in  the  deep  hypnotic  state  (Tetat  aidtique),  a 
condition  in  which  she  would  usually  remain  motion- 
less until  aroused  by  the  doctor.  Under  these  cir- 
cumstances Dr.  Ochorowicz  conducted  upwards  of 
forty  experiments  in  conveying  mental  commands, 
a  large  proportion  of  which  were  executed  by  the 
subject  with  more  or  less  exactness.  These  trials 
have  the  drawback  above  indicated,  common  to  all 
experiments  of  the  kind  with  the  agent  in  the  same 
room ;  moreover,  each  experiment  appears  to  have 
extended  over  a  considerable  period,  and  the  com- 
mand— e.g.,  to  rise  from  the  chair  and  hand  a  cake 
from  the  table  to  Dr.  Ochorowicz — was  frequently 
executed  in  stages.  In  judging  of  the  results,  how- 
ever, it  should  be  remembered  that  Dr.  Ochorowicz 
has  elsewhere  shown  himself  to  be  acute  in  criticism 
and  accurate  in  observation. 

Some  experiments  made  by  Dr.  Gibert  on  Madame 
B.,  and  recorded  by  Professor  Pierre  Janet,1  seem 
open  to  a  similar  objection.  Dr.  Gibert  communicated 
the  mental  command  by  touching  Madame  B.'s  fore- 
head with  his  own  whilst  concentrating  his  thoughts 
on  the  ideas  to  be  conveyed.  It  is  difficult  to  feel 
sure  that  the  success  of  the  experiment  under  such 
conditions  was  not  due  to  the  command  having  been 

1  Bulletin  dt  la  Sot.  dc  Psychologie  Physiologique,  1885. 


PRODUCTION   OF  MOVEMENTS.  89 

unconsciously  muttered  by  Dr.  Gibert  within  the 
hearing  of  the  percipient  In  the  following  account, 
however,  thought-transference  would  seem  to  be  the 
simplest  explanation  of  the  results.  The  narrator, 
unfortunately,  remains  anonymous ;  he  is,  however, 
personally  known  to  Dr.  Dariex,  the  editor  of  the 
periodical  from  which  the  account  is  extracted,  and 
the  experiments  were  obviously  conducted  with  care.1 
In  this  case  it  seems  clear,  since  the  command,  though 
understood,  was  on  more  than  one  occasion  disobeyed, 
that  the  idea  telepathically  intruded  into  the  per- 
cipient's mind  was  not  necessarily  associated  with  an 
impulse  to  action. 

No.  23.— By  J.  H,  P. 

[On  the  6th  December  1887],  having  placed  M.  in  a  deep 
trance,  I  turned  my  back  upon  her,  and,  without  any  gesture  or 
sound  whatever,  gave  her  the  following  mental  order : — 

"  When  you  wake  up  you  are  to  go  and  fetch  a  glass,  put  a 
few  drops  of  Eau  de  Cologne  into  it,  and  bring  it  to  me." 

On  waking  up,  M.  was  visibly  preoccupied;  she  could  not 
keep  still,  and  at  last  came  and  placed  herself  in  front  of  me, 
exclaiming — 

u  What  an  idea  to  put  in  my  head  ! " 

"  Why  do  you  speak  so  to  me  ? " 

"  Because  the  idea  that  I  have  got  can  only  come  from  you, 
and  I  don't  wish  to  obey." 

"  Don't  obey  unless  you  like ;  but  I  wish  you  to  tell  me  at 
once  what  you  are  thinking  of." 

"  Well,  then,  I  was  to  go  and  look  for  a  glass,  put  some  water 
in  it,  with  spine  drops  of  Eau  de  Cologne,  and  take  it  to  you ; 
it  is  really  ridiculous." 

My  order  had  then  been  perfectly  understood  for  the  first 
time.  From  that  moment,  December  6th,  1887,  till  to-day, 
with  only  two  or  three  exceptions,  the  mental  transmission, 
whether  ia  the  waking  or  sleeping  state,  has  been  most  vivid. 
It  is  only  disturbed  at  certain  times,  or  when  M.  is  feeling  very 
anxious. 

On  the  loth  of  December  1887,  unknown  to  M.,  I  hid  a  watch, 
that  was  not  going,  behind  some  books  in  my  bookcase.  When 
she  arrived  I  put  her  to  sleep,  and  gave  her  the  following  mental 
command : — 

1  Annales  des  Sciences  P$ychiques>  voL  iii.  pp.  130-133. 


9O  APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE, 

"Go  and  fetch  me  the  watch  that  is  hidden  behind  some 
books  in  the  bookcase." 

I  sat  in  my  armchair  with  M.  behind  me,  and  was  careful  not 
to  look  in  the  direction  where  the  object  was  hidden. 

M.  suddenly  got  up  from  her  armchair  and  went  straight  to 
the  bookcase,  but  could  not  open  it ;  making  energetic  move- 
ments the  while,  whenever  she  touched  the  door,  and  especially 
the  glass. 

"  It  is  there  !  it  is  there  !  I  am  certain ;  but  this  glass  burns 
me  1 " 

I  decided  to  open  it  myself;  she  rushed  at  my  books,  took 
them  out,  and  seized  the  watch,  delighted  to  have  found  it. 

Similar  trials  have  been  made  with  commands  that  one  of 
my  friends  passed  to  me,  written  beforehand,  and  not  in  the 
presence  of  the  subject,  and  the  success  has  been  complete  ; 
but  if  the  person  who  passes  me  the  order  is  unknown  to  her, 
she  refuses  to  obey,  saying  that  the  command  is  not  mine. 

M.  N.,  who  was  convinced  that  mental  transmission  is  a 
fraud,  assured  me  that  I  should  never  be  able  to  transmit  an 
order  from  him  to  M. 

I  invited  him  to  come  to  my  house,  at  five  o'clock  in  the 
evening,  with  a  command  written,  which  he  was  to  give  me 
only  when  M.  was  asleep,  and  outside  my  study. 

At  5.10  N.  arrived  and  we  went  out,  leaving  M.  in  a  trance  ; 
when  we  were  separated  from  my  study  by  the  two  intervening 
rooms,  with  all  the  doors  shut,  N.  pulled  out  a  small  paper  and 
said — 

"  You  will  read  this  command,  we  will  both  come  back  to  M., 
and  without  any  gestures,  you  will  communicate  it  to  her." 

"  Certainly." 

In  the  note  was  written,  "  Give  the  mental  command  to  M. 
to  count  out  loud  from  5  to  I  ;  5,  4,  3,  2,  I." 

We  came  back  to  my  study  ;  I  sat  at  my  desk  as  usual — I 
am  in  the  habit  of  making  notes  during  the  progress  of  the 
experiments,  so  as  to  report  them  with  scrupulous  accuracy — 
and  I  sent  N.'s  mental  command,  while  pretending  to  write. 
M.  suddenly  exclaimed — 

"  Doubtless,  you  imagine  that  I  cannot  count  1  I  can  count 
from  I  to  50,000,  if  I  wish." 

Mental  command — "  Count  from  5  to  I." 

"  No,  I  will  not  obey  a  strange  command  ;  it  is  not  a  com- 
mand of  yours." 

All  my  efforts  were  useless  ;  we  had  to  abandon  the  experi- 
ment. The  command  was  certainly  understood ;  but  M.  N. 
retired,  convinced  that  it  had  not  been  understood,  and  that 
even  the  trance  was  a  sham ! 


PRODUCTION    OF   MOVEMENT&  QI 

Automatic  Writing. 

Sometimes  the  working  of  the  telepathic  impulse  is 
of  a  more  apparently  mysterious  kind.  We  have  seen 
that  Mr.  Beard  was  fully  conscious  of  the  action  of  a 
restraining  force;  and  Mrs.  Thaw,  who  was  in  a  con- 
dition little  if  at  all  removed  from  the  normal,  appears 
also  to  have  been  aware  of  what  she  was  doing,  if 
perhaps  without  explicit  recognition  of  her  motives  at 
the  time  of  performing  the  prescribed  actions.  But  in 
the  various  cases  now  to  be  described  the  telepathic 
impulse  seems  never  to  have  affected  the  normal 
consciousness  of  the  percipient  at  all ;  and  the  results 
produced  through  the  agency  of  his  organism  were 
due  to  no  recognised  volition  on  his  part.  The  intel- 
ligence directing  his  hand  was  an  intelligence  working 
below  and  apart  from  his  ordinary  life. 

Now  this  subterranean  intelligence  presents  many 
points  of  analogy  with  the  secondary  consciousness  of 
the  hypnotic  subject ;  in  both  states  we  find  indica- 
tions of  thought  and  will  distinct  from  those  of 
waking  life,  and  of  a  memory  not  shared  with  that 
life.  Moreover,  it  has  been  shown  experimentally, 
by  Mr.  Edmund  Gurney,1  Professor  Pierre  Janet,2  and 
others,  that  the  consciousness  which  makes  itself 
known  through  planchette  is,  in  certain  persons  at 
any  rate,  identical  with  the  consciousness  found  in 
the  hypnotic  trance,  so  far  as  the  test  of  a  common 
memory  can  be  relied  upon  to  prove  identity.  The 
superior  susceptibility  to  telepathic  influences,  already 
referred  to,  of  the  hypnotic  subject,  may  perhaps, 
therefore,  in  the  light  of  these  later  experiments,  be 
found  to  indicate  a  superior  susceptibility  of  those 
parts  of  the  brain  whose  workings  lie  below  the 
ordinary  consciousness,  and  reveal  themselves  only  in 
the  activities  of  trance  and  automatism. 

1  See  the  account  of  his  experiments  on  "  Peculiarities  of  certain 
Post-hypnotic  States,"  Proc.  S.JP.JR.,  vol.  iv.  pp.  268-323. 
1  "  L  Automatisme  Psychologique." 


92  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

The  following  is  an  illustrative  case.  The  account 
is  derived  from  contemporary  notes,  made  by  the  late 
Mr.  P.  H.  Newnham,  Vicar  of  Maker,  Devonport,  of 
a  series  of  experiments  conducted  by  himself  and  his 
wife  during  eight  months  in  1 87 1.1  Mr.  Newnham 
would  write,  in  a  book  kept  for  the  purpose,  a  question 
of  the  purport  of  which  Mrs.  Newnham  was  in  ignor- 
ance; and  Mrs.  Newnham,  holding  her  hand  on  a 
planchette,  would  write  an  answer  to  the  question. 
The  conditions  of  the  experiments  are  described  by 
Mr.  Newnham,  in  an  account  written  in  1884,  as 
follows : — 

No.  24. 

"  My  wife  always  sat  at  a  small  low  table,  in  a  low  chair, 
leaning  backwards.  I  sat  about  eight  feet  distant,  at  a 
rather  higher  table,  and  with  my  back  towards  her  while  writ- 
ing down  the  questions.  It  was  absolutely  impossible  that  any 
gesture,  or  play  of  features,  on  my  part,  could  have  been  visible 
or  intelligible  to  her.  As  a  rule  she  kept  her  eyes  shut;  but 
never  became  in  the  slightest  degree  hypnotic,  or  even  naturally 
drowsy." 

In  all  309  questions  with  their  answers  were  recorded 
under  these  conditions,  before  the  experiments  were 
finally  abandoned  on  account  of  their  prejudicial 
effect  on  Mrs.  Newnham's  health.  The  extracts  from 
Mr.  Newnham's  note-book  given  below  show  that 
Mrs.  Newnham  throughout  had  some  kind  of  know- 
ledge, not  always  apparently  complete,  of  the  terms  of 
the  question.2  But  she  was  not  herself  consciously 
aware  of  the  purport  either  of  the  question  or  of  the 
answer  written  through  her  hand. 

January  2gth. 
13.  Is  it  the  operator's  brain,  or  some  external  force,  that 

moves  the  Planchette  ?    Answer  "brain  "  or  "force." 
A.  Will. 

1  Proc.  Soc.  Psych.  Research,  vol.  iii.  pp.  6-23. 

2  Mr.  Newnham  explains  that  "  five  or   six  questions  were  often 
asked  consecutively  without  her  being  told  of  the  subject  that  was  being 
pursued." 


PRODUCTION   OF   MOVEMENTS.  93 

14.  Is  it  the  will  of  a  living  person,  or  of  an  immaterial  spirit, 

distinct    from    that    person?     Answer    " person"    or 
"  spirit." 
A.  Wife. 

15.  Give  first  the  wife's  Christian   name;  then,  my  favourite 

name  for  her.     (This  was  accurately  done.) 

27.  What  is  your  own  name  ? 
A.  Only  you. 

28.  We  are  not  quite  sure  of  the  meaning  of  the  answer. 

Explain. 
A.  Wife. 

Failing  to  get  more  than  this  at  the  outset,  we  returned  to 
the  same  thought  after  question  114  ;  when,  having  been  closely 
presbed  on  another  subject,  we  received  the  curt  reply — "  Told 
all  I  know." 

February  \%lh. 

117.  Who  are  you  that  writes,  and  has  told  all  you  know  ? 
A.  Wife. 

1 18.  But  does  no  one  tell  wife  what  to  write?     If  so,  who? 
A.  Spirit. 

119.  Whose  spirit? 
A.  Wife's  brain. 

1 20.  But  how  does  wife's  brain  know  (certain)  secrets  ? 
A.  Wife's  spirit  unconsciously  guides. 

121.  But  how  does  wife's  spirit  know  things  it  has  never  been 

told? 
A,  No  external  influence. 

122.  But  by  what  internal    influence  does  it  know  (these) 

secrets  ? 
A.  You  cannot  know. 

Mr.  Newnham,  who  was  a  Mason,  took  the  oppor- 
tunity on  several  occasions  of  questioning  the 
planchette  on  details  of  the  Masonic  ritual  and 
archaeology — of  which  Mrs.  Newnham  was  of  course 
ignorant — with  very  surprising  results.  It  will  be 
seen  from  the  extracts  which  follow  that  Mrs. 
Newnham's  answers  showed  not  only  an  acquaint- 
ance with  the  terms  of  the  question,  but  even  a 
fragmentary  knowledge  of  the  correct  answer — know- 
ledge which  under  the  circumstances  could  hardly 
have  been  derived  elsewhere  than  from  the  questioner's 
brain. 


94  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

March  26th. 

166.  Of  what  language  is  the  first  syllable  of  the  Great  Triple 

R. A.  Word  ? l 
A.  Don't  know. 

167.  Yes,  you  do.     What  are  the  three  languages  of  which 

the  word  is  composed  ? 

A.  Greek,  Egyptian,  Syriac  first  syllable  (correctly  given\ 
rest  unknown. 

168.  Write  the  syllable  which  is  Syriac. 
A.  (First  syllable  correctly  written.) 

169.  Write  the  syllable  which  is  Egyptian. 
A.  Second. 

170.  Can  you  not  write  the  syllable  itself? 
A.  Third  Greek. 

174.  Write  down  the  word  itself. 

A.  First  three  and  last  two  letters  were  written  correctly, 
but  four  incorrect  letters,  partly  borrowed  from  another 
word  of  the  same  degree,  came  in  the  middle. 

176.  Why  do  you  write  a  word  of  which  I  know  nothing  ? 

A.  Wife  tried  hard  to  tell  the  word,  but  could  not  quite 
catch  it. 

177.  Catch  it  from  whom  ? 
A.  Not  quite  sure. 

178.  Not  quite  sure  of  what  ? 

A.  I  know  nothing.     Wife  doesn't  quite  know. 
182.  Write  out  the  prayer  used  at    the  advancement  of  a 
Mark  Master  Mason. 

A.  Almighty  Ruler  of  the  Universe  and  Architect  of  all 
worlds,  we  beseech  Thee  to  accept  this,  our  brother, 
whom  we  have  this  day  received  into  our  most  honour- 
able Company  of  Mark  Master  Masons.  Grant  him  to 
be  a  worthy  member  of  our  brotherhood ;  and  may  he 
be  in  his  own  person  a  perfect  mirror  of  all  Masonic' 
virtues.  Grant  that  all  our  doings  may  be  to  Thy 
honour  and  glory,  and  to  the  welfare  of  all  mankind. 

This  prayer  was  written  off  instantaneously  and  very  rapidly. 
It  is  a  very  remarkable  production  indeed.  For  the  benefit  of 
those  who  are  not  members  of  the  craft,  I  may  say  that  no 
prayer  in  the  slightest  degree  resembling  it  is  made  use  of  in  the 
Ritual  of  any  Masonic  degree ;  and  yet  it  contains  more  than 
one  strictly  accurate  technicality  connected  with  the  degree  of 
Mark  Mason.  My  wife  has  never  seen  any  Masonic  prayers, 

1  Previous  questions  had  been  asked  on  the  same  subject,  and  the 
first  syllable  had  already  been  correctly  written.  On  a  subsequent 
occasion  the  same  question  was  repeated  and  a  wholly  incorrect  answer 
was  given. 


PRODUCTION   OF   MOVEMENTS.  95 

whether  in  "  Carlile,"  or  any  other  real  or  spurious  Ritual  of 
the  Masonic  Order. 

183.  I  do  not  know  this  prayer.     Where  is  it  to  be  found  ? 
A.  Old  American  Ritual. 

184.  Where  can  I  get  one? 

A.  Most  likely  none  in  England. 

185.  Can  you  not  write  the  prayer  that  I  make  use  of  in  my 

own  Lodge  ? 
A.  No,  I  don't  know  it. 

We  have  to  remark  here  not  merely  the  exhibition 
of  a  will  and  an  intelligence  differing  from  the  writer's 
normal  self,  but  the  display  of  a  yet  more  alien  dis- 
ingenuousness.  Similar  evasions  and  inventions  occur 
more  than  once  ii\  the  course  of  these  experiments. 
Indeed,  a  certain  degree  of  moral  perversity  is  a 
frequent  and  notorious  characteristic  of  automatic 
expression. 

Some  interesting  experiments  of  the  same  kind  were 
conducted,  in  the  winter  of  1892-93,  by  Mr.  R.  H. 
Buttemer,  of  Emanuel  College,  Cambridge,  and  Mr. 
H.  T,  Green.  Throughout  the  series  the  questions 
were,  as  in  the  preceding  case,  written  down,  so  that 
the  percipient  was  completely  ignorant  of  their 
purport  The  following  is  the  record  of  the  last 
experiments  of  the  series. 

No.  25, — By  MR.  R.  H.  BUTTEMER. 

February  i8th,  1893,  8  P.M.  Mrs.  H.,  Miss  B.,  Mr.  and  Miss 
M.  present,  in  addition  to  Mr.  Green,  and  Messrs.  S.,  W.,  and 
Buttemer. 

Mr.  Green,  as  usual,  operated  Planchette,  and  on  this  occasion 
sat  with  his  back  to  all  the  other  persons  present. 

Q.  (from  Mr.  M.):  What  was  I  doing  this  afternoon? 

A,  i.  the  sun  (all  else  illegible),  ii.  Enjoying  the 

fresh  air  of  heaven. 

Q.  What  was  Mr.  Rogers  doing  in  Cambridge  ? 

A.  i.  (Irrelevant,  or  possibly  connected  vaguely  with  the 
question.)  ii.  Ask  another,  but  Mr.  Rogers  came  up  on  im- 
portant business  connected  with  the  Lodge.  (Correct.) 


96  APPARITIONS  AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

Q.  Where  has  Mrs.  M.  gone  ? 

A.  i.  (Irrelevant.)  ii.  Far,  far  away,  but  more  next  time, 
iii.  Her  mother  has  gone  to — oh,  what  a  happy  place  is  London ! 
iv.  All  change  here  for  Bletchlcy.  (Mrs.  M.  had  possibly 
passed  this  station  on  her  journey.) 

Q.  Who  has  won  the  Association  Match  to-day? 

A.  i.  (Illegible.)  ii.  O  ye  simple  ones,  how  long  will  yc  love 
simplicity?  Why,  Oxford,  of  course.  [This  fact  was  known  to 
some  persons  in  the  room,  but  not  to  Mr.  Green.] 

One  of  the  company  then  suggested  the  attempt  to  get  the 
name  on  a  visiting  card  transmitted,  and  the  question  was 
written,  "Write  name  on  card."  Mr.  Green  did  not  know  that  this 
experiment  was  about  to  be  tried,  and  the  card  was  picked  from 
a  pile  at  random.  The  name  was  John  B  Bourne.  A  sentence 
was  written  by  Mr.  Green,  which  proved  to  be,  "Think  of  one 
letter  at  a  time  and  then  see  what  will  happen."  We  did  so. 

A.  i.  J  for  Jerusalem,  O  for  Omri,  H  for  Honey,  and  N  for 
Nothing,  ii.  B  for  Benjamin,  O  for  Olive,  U  for  Unicorn. 
(The  remaining  letters  were  given  incorrectly.) 

Q.  How  many  of  the  Society's  books  are  here?  (There  were 
two  volumes  of  Proceedings  on  the  table.) 

A.  i.  (Irrelevant.)     ii.   The  answer  is  100-98. 

Q.  What  is  2  x  3  ? 

Two  irrelevant  answers  were  given,  possibly  owing  to  a 
slight  disturbance  in  the  room.  The  third  answer  was — 
"  When  that  noise  has  ceased  and  S,  has  finished  knocking 
the  lamp  over,  I  say  6." 

A  trial  shortly  after  this,  February  iQth,  gave  no  results, 
and  the  power  of  automatic  writing  appears  to  have  entirely 
left  Mr.  Green  for  the  present.  (Proc.  Soc.  Psych.  Research,  vol. 
ix.  pp.  61-64.) 

In  this,  as  in  Mr,  Newnham's  case,  the  mode  of 
expression  is  again  characteristic  of  the  automatic 
consciousness.  It  is  explained  by  Mr.  Buttemer  that 
when  two  or  more  answers  are  given,  the  operator 
had  been  simply  told  to  write  again,  after  the  first 
irrelevant  answer,  without  being  shown  the  question. 

Table  Tilting. 

No.  26. — By  the  AUTHOR. 

We  pass  on  to  experiments  in  which  the  ideas  trans- 
mitted from  the  agent  find  other  subterranean  channels 


PRODUCTION  OF  MOVEMENTS.  97 

in  the  percipient's  organism  for  their  expression.  Of 
all  forms  of  intelligent  automatism  writing,  next  to 
speaking,  is  probably  in  an  educated  percipient  the 
easiest,  because  in  normal  life  the  commonest  In 
the  cases,  therefore,  recorded  below  the  actual  move- 
ments involved,  though  of  a  relatively  simple  kind,  as 
being  unaccustomed  called  possibly  for  the  exercise 
of  a  degree  of  mental  activity  as  high  as  would  have 
been  the  case  had  writing  been  the  vehicle  of  expres- 
sion. In  the  preceding  chapter  it  was  recorded,  in 
the  experiments  with  numbers,  that  some  of  the 
answers  were  given  through  the  movements  of  a 
table  on  which  the  percipient's  hands  rested  (p.  73). 
A  series  of  experiments  of  this  nature  was  made  by 
the  writer  in  November  and  December  1873,  with 
the  assistance  of  a  few  friends,  amongst  whom  were 
Mr.  F.  H.  Colson,  now  Head  Master  of  Plymouth 
College,  and  the  Rev.  W,  E.  Smith,  of  Gorton,  near 
Lowestoft  The  following  is  a  description  of  the 
methods  adopted.  Three  or  four  of  us  would  sit 
round  a  small  centre-legged  table,  cane-bottomed 
chair,  waste-paper  basket,  or  metal  tripod,  with  our 
hands  resting  on  it.  We  found  that  in  a  few  minutes 
the  table  (or  other  instrument)  would  tilt  on  one  side, 
or  move  round  and  round,  with  considerable  freedom. 
When  these  motions  had  once  been  fairly  established, 
one  or  two  of  those  present  in  the  room  would  retire 
to  a  distance,  keeping  their  backs  to  the  table,  and 
think  of  a  letter  of  the  alphabet.  The  table  would 
move  freely  up  and  down,  under  the  varying  pressure 
of  the  hands  laid  on  it,  in  a  succession  of  small  tilts. 
Those  sitting  at  the  table  would  count  the  tilts— one 
tilt  standing  for  A,  two  for  B,  three  for  C,  and  so  on. 
Excluding  second  trials,  there  were  70  experiments 
conducted  under  these  conditions.  The  right  letter 
was  tilted  in  27  cases,  and  in  two  others  the  next 
succeeding  letter  was  given.  On  some  occasions  the 
proportion  of  successes  was  much  higher ;  thus,  on 
the  28th  November,  out  of  a  total  of  16  trials,  10 

7 


98  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE, 

were  correct.  On  the  ist  December,  on  the  other 
hand,  10  trials  were  made  without  any  success.  It 
was  the  rule  throughout  that  the  agents  should  stand 
with  their,  backs  to  the  table  at  some  distance  from  it, 
and  after  the  first  few  experiments  we  found,  or 
thought  we  found,  that  the  thought-transference  suc- 
ceeded best  with  a  single  agent.  In  order  that  the 
letter  might  not  be  guessed  from  the  context,  we 
generally  took  the  initial  or  initial  and  final  letters 
only  of  a  word ;  in  four  cases  only  did  the  agent 
select  as  many  as  three  consecutive  letters  of  a  word. 
If  the  letters  had  been  arbitrarily  chosen,  the  chances 
against  the  right  letters  being  indicated  would  be 
25  to  I.  But  as  the  letters  actually  selected  were  in 
most  cases  constituent  parts  of  a  word,  generally  the 
initial  letter,  and  as  in  some  cases  two  or  three 
consecutive  letters  were  selected,  the  adverse  chances 
would  be  reduced,  roughly  speaking,  to  something 
like  15  to  i.  But  even  so  the  results  attained  arc 
sufficiently  striking.1 

In  these  experiments  the  percipient  or  percipients 
themselves  counted  the  tilts ;  and  it  is  probable  that 
occasionally  one  or  other  of  those  seated  at  the  table 
half-consciously  guided  its  movements  in  conformity 
with  his  own  ideas  of  what  the  letter  would  be. 
But  in  a  modified  form  of  the  experiment,  introduced 
by  Professor  Richet,  the  percipients,  two  or  three  in 
number,  were  seated  at  one  table  and  a  printed 
alphabet  was  placed  on  another  table  behind  the 
percipients  and  out  of  their  range  of  vision.  When 

1  There  were  nine  sittings  in  all,  but  the  records  of  one  were  im- 
perfectly kept,  and  have  not  been  preserved.  In  two  cases  the  details 
given  are  insufficient ;  in  the  notes  of  the  first  evening  it  is  stated  that 
the  person  seated  at  the  table  "failed  three  or  four  times,  succeeded 
once  in  giving  word  of  (i.e.,  selected  from)  newspaper  (which  agent) 
held  in  his  hand."  These  trials  have  been  omitted  altogether  from  the 
results  given  in  the  text.  On  the  third  evening  there  is  a  record, 
"gave  S  H  but  got  wrong  afterwards."  The  word  thought  of  was 
Sherry.  I  have  counted  this  trial  as  two  successes  and  two  failures, 
judging  from  the  other  experiments  recorded  that  not  more  than  four 
consecutive  letters  at  most  would  have  been  attempted* 


PRODUCTION   OF   MOVEMENTS.  99 

the  first  table  tilted,1  under  the  automatic  movements 
of  the  hands  resting  on  it,  it  caused  a  bell  to  ring. 
M.  Richet  or  some  other  experimenter  sat  at  the 
second  table  and  drew  a  pen  slowly  backwards  and 
forwards  over  the  printed  alphabet.  The  letters  to 
which  the  pen  was  pointing  when  the  bell  rang  were 
noted,  and  it  was  found  that  they  made  up  intelligible 
words  and  sentences,  provided  that  in  some  cases  the 
next  letter  or  the  next  but  one  were  substituted  for 
that  actually  given.2  All  necessary  precautions  were 
taken  that  the  alphabet  should  be  out  of  sight  of  the 
"  mediums,"  who  were  in  most  cases  personal  friends 
of  M.  Richet,  and  whose  good  faith  was,  he  believes, 
in  all  cases  unimpeachable.  Subjoined  is  an  account 
of  the  results  obtained  on  one  evening.  M.  Richet 
appears  from  the  account  to  have  been  one  of  those 
seated  at  the  tilting  table.- 

No.  27.— By  PROFESSOR  RICHET. 

"  On  the  9th  of  November  we  took  the  same  precautions,  but 
used  an  ordinary  alphabet,  not  the  circular  one.s  The  name  of 
the  *  spirit '  who  came  to  the  table  was  given  as  V  I  L  L  O  N. 

1  In  this  case  it  will  be  observed  the  table  tilted  only  once  for  each 
letter.     The  method  adopted  (after  trial  of  the  alternative)  in  my  own 
experiments,  though  slower  and  more  cumbrous,  was  apparently  pro- 
ductive of  more  accurate  results.     It  will  be  readily  understood  that  it 
might  be  easier  for  the  transmitted  impulse  to  check  a  movement,  at 
once  uncertain  and  spasmodic,  which  had  been  already  initiated,  than 
to  overcome,  in  a  short  space  of  time,  the  resistance  of  inertia  and 
generate  a  new  movement.     The  distinction  may  perhaps  be  illustrated 
by  the  difference   between  the  amount  of  force  required  to  start  a 
railway  truck  at  rest  on  the  level,  and  that  which  would  suffice  to  arrest 
one  actually  in  gentle  motion. 

2  Of  course  substitutions  of  this  kind  considerably  reduce  the  value 
of  the  results  obtained,  but  it  will  be  found  that  when  full  deduction 
has  been  made  on  this  score,  the  coincidences  remain  overwhelmingly 
in  excess  of  anything  which  could  have  been  produced  by  chance. 

3  In  some  previous  experiments  a  circular  alphabet  had  been  used, 
with  a  view  of  preventing  any  of  those  seated  at  the  first  table  from 
learning  by  the  movements  of  the  operator's  hand  what  point  of  the 
alphabet  he  had  reached.     The  other  precautions  described  seemed, 
however,  as  M.  Richet  points  out,  sufficient  to  exclude  all  considerations 
of  this  kind* 


100  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

Then  we  made  a  great  noise,  we  repeated  poetry,  sang,  and 
counted  to  such  good  purpose  that  P.,  who  was  at  the  alphabet, 
could  hardly  follow  the  ringing  of  the  bell.  We  asked  for  some 
French  poetry.  The  reply  was — 

QUSNNTKFSNEIGDRDAMSAM 
O  U,  S  O  N  T,  L  E  S,  N  E  I  G  E  5,  D  A  N  T  A  N 

That  is,  "Ou  sont  les  neiges  d'Antan?" — a  verse  of  Villon's, 
obviously  known  to  us  all. 

We  then  asked,  what  were  the  relations  of  Villon  with  the 
kings  of  France  ? 

KOUHTLECRUEL 
LOUIS,  L  E,  CRUEL 

Louis  le  cruel. 

What  book  ought  we  to  read  ? 

ESSAYSURDADMONINMANHP 
ESS  A  Y,SUR,DA  EMONIOMANIE 

The  reader  will  understand  that  if  I  mention  these  experi- 
ments, it  is  not  because  the  answers  are  interesting  in  them- 
selves, but  because  the  precautions  taken  seemed  sufficient  to 
prevent  the  medium  from  gaining  any  knowledge  of  the  move- 
ments of  the  operator  at  the  alphabet.  ...  I  add  a  few  more 
replies;  but  the  number  and  intrinsic  significance  of  these 
replies  is  a  matter  of  but  little  importance. 

FEST   INALENTE 
LOFAMDTMREIINAJUBR 
I  N  F  A  N  D  U  M,REJ  I N  AJ  U  B  E  S 
RENOVAREDOLOREM 
RENO  V  A  R  E,D  O  L  0  R  E  M 

The  old  spelling  of  the  word  "Rejina"  should  be  aoticed. 
(Proc.  Soc.  Psych.  Research,  vol.  v.  pp.  142,  143.) 

In  this  case  it  will  be  observed  that  P.  alone  was  in 
possession  of  the  knowledge,  without  which  all  the 
efforts  of  those  at  the  table  could  have  produced  only 
a  meaningless  sequence  of  letters.  In  some  other 
experiments  of  the  series  the  procedure  was  more 
complicated.  M.  Richet,  standing  apart  from  both 
tables,  asked  a  question,  the  answer  to  which  was 
given  by  the  percipients  with  a  certain  approximation 
to  correctness.  The  results,  though  less  striking  than 


PRODUCTION   OF  MOVEMENTS.  IOI 

those  already  quoted,  are  yet  such  as  to  suggest  that 
they  were  not  due  to  chance.1 

Production  of  Local  Anesthesia. 

We  now  pass  to  experiments  of  another  kind, 
resembling  those  last  quoted,  inasmuch  as  the  effects 
were  produced  without  the  consciousness  of  the  per- 
cipient, but  differing  in  the  important  particular  that 
no  deliberate  and  conscious  effort  on  his  part  could 
have  enabled  him  to  produce  them.  In  experiments 
carried  on  with  various  subjects  at  intervals  through 
the  years  1883-87,  at  some  of  which  the  present  writer 
assisted,  Mr.  Edmund  Gurney  had  shown  that  it  was 
possible  by  means  of  the  unexpressed  will  of  the 
agent  to  produce  local  anaesthesia  in  certain  persons. 
{S.P.R.,  vol.  i.  pp.  257-260;  ii.  2OI-20S;  iii.453-4595  v. 
14-17.)  In  these  experiments  the  subject  was  placed 
at  a  table,  and  his  hands  were  passed  through  holes  in 
a  large  brown  paper  screen,  so  that  they  were  com- 
pletely concealed  from  his  view.  Mr.  G.  A.  Smith 
then  held  his  hand  at  a  distance  of  two  or  three 
inches  from  the  finger  indicated  by  Mr.  Gurney,  at 
the  same  time  willing  that  it  should  become  rigid  and 
insensible.  On  subsequently  applying  appropriate 
tests  it  was  found,  as  a  rule,  that  the  finger  selected 
had  actually  become  rigid  and  was  insensible  to  pain. 
In  the  last  series  of  160  experiments  Mr,  Gurney,  as 
well  as  Mr.  Smith,  held  his  hand  over  a  particular 
finger.  In  124  cases  the  finger  over  which  Mr. 
Smith's  hand  had  been  held  was  alone  affected;  in  16 
cases  Mr.  Gurney  and  Mr.  Smith  were  both  success- 
ful; in  13  cases  Mr.  Gurney  was  successful  and  Mr. 
Smith  failed.  In  the  remaining  7  cases  no  effect  at  all 
was  produced.  It  is  noteworthy  that  in  a  series  of  41 
similar  trials,  in  which  Mr.  Smith,  while  holding  his 
hand  in  the  same  position,  willed  that  no  effect 

1  Rev.  /%//.,  Dec.  1884;  see  also  S.P.R.%  vol.  ii.  pp.  247  et  scq* 


102  APPARITIONS  ANt>  ?HOUGrff-TRANSPEkENC£. 

should  be  produced,  there  was  actually  no  effect 
in  36  cases;  in  4  cases  the  finger  over  which  his 
hand  was  held,  and  in  the  remaining  case  another 
finger,  were  affected.  The  rigidity  was  tested  by  ask- 
ing the  subject,  at  the  end  of  the  experiment,  to  close 
his  hands.  When  he  complied  with  the  request  the 
finger  operated  on — if  the  experiment  had  succeeded 
— would  remain  rigid.  The  insensibility  was  proved 
by  pricking,  burning,  or  by  a  current  from  an  induc- 
tion coil.  In  the  majority  of  the  successful  trials 
the  insensibility  was  shown  to  be  proof  against  all 
assaults,  however  severe. 

In  these  earlier  experiments  it  seemed  essential  to 
success  that  Mr.  Smith's  hand  should  be  in  close 
proximity  to  that  of  the  subject,  without  any  interven- 
ing barrier.  These  conditions  made  it  difficult  to 
exclude  the  possibility  of  the  subject  learning  by 
variations  in  temperature,  or  by  air  currents,  which 
finger  was  actually  being  operated  on;  though  it  is 
hard  to  conceive  that  the  percipient  could  by  any 
such  means  have  discriminated  between  Mr.  Gurney's 
hand  and  Mr.  Smith's.  On  the  other  hand,  even 
if  this  source  of  error  was  held  to  be  excluded, 
the  interpretation  of  the  results  remained  ambiguous. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  Mr.  Gurney  himself  was  inclined 
to  attribute  the  effects  produced,  not  to  telepathy,  as 
ordinarily  understood,  but  to  a  specific  vital  effluence, 
or,  as  he  phrased  it,  a  kind  of  nervous  induction, 
operating  directly  on  the  affected  part  of  the  per- 
cipient's organism.  (Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  v.  pp.  254-259.) 

With  a  view  to  test  this  hypothesis  further  experi- 
ments of  the  same  kind  were  made  by  Mrs.  Sidgwick 
during  the  years  1890  and  1892,  the  subjects  being 
P.  and  Miss  B.  already  mentioned.  The  percipient 
was  throughout  in  a  normal  condition.  As  before, 
he  sat  at  a  table  with  his  hands  passed  through  holes 
in  a  large  screen,  which  extended  sufficiently  far  in 
all  directions  to  prevent  him  from  seeing  either  the 
operator  or  his  own  hands.  Mr,  Smith,  as  before, 


PRODUCTION  OF  MOVEMENTS.  IO3 

willed  to  produce  the  desired  effect  in  the  finger 
which  had  been  intimated  to  him,  either  by  signs 
or  writing,  by  one  of  the  experimenters.  Passing 
over  the  trials,  very  generally  successful,  made  under 
the  same  conditions  as  Mr.  Gurney's  experiments — 
i.e.,  with  the  agent's  hand  held  at  a  short  distance 
without  any  intervening  screen  from  the  finger 
selected — we  will  quote  Mrs.  Sidgwick's  account  of 
the  later  series  performed  under  varied  conditions. 
(Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  viii.  pp.  577-596.) 

No.  28.— By  MRS.  H.  SIDGWICK. 

In  the  second  division,  (£),  of  our  experiments  come  those  in 
which  a  glass  screen  was  placed  over  the  subject's  hands.  For 
the  first  four  of  these  we  used  a  framed  window  pane  which 
happened  to  be  handy.  Then  we  obtained  and  used  a  sheet 
of  32  oz.  glass,  measuring  22  by  10  inches  and  l/$  inch  in  thick- 
ness. This  was  supported  on  two  large  books  placed  beyond 
the  subject's  hands  on  each  side,  and  in  this  position  the  upper 
surface  of  the  glass  was  2^  inches  above  the  surface  of  the 
table,  so  that  there  was  ample  room  for  the  hands  to  rest  under- 
neath without  touching  the  glass.  Mr.  Smith  held  his  hand  in 
the  usual  position  over  the  selected  finger,  above  the  glass  and 
not  touching  it.  Under  these  conditions  we  tried  21  experi- 
ments with  P.,  of  which  18  were  successful,  and  6  with  Miss 
B.,  all  successful.  In  the  case  of  the  3  failures  with  P.,  no 
effect  was  produced  on  any  finger.  In  one  successful  case,  the 
time  taken  was  long,  and  we  interrupted  the  experiment  by 
premature  testing  in  the  way  explained  above. 

Division  (c)  includes  those  experiments  in  which  Mr.  Smith 
did  not  approximate  his  hand  to  that  of  the  subject  at  all,  but 
merely  looked  at  the  selected  finger  from  some  place  in  the 
same  room  as  the  subject,  but  out  of  his  sight.  The  distances 
between  him  and  the  subject  varied  from  about  2^  to  about  12 
feet.  Under  these  conditions  we  tried  37  experiments  with  P.,  18 
in  1890,  of  which  6  were  failures,  and  2  only  partially  successful, 
and  19  in  1892,  of  which  10  were  failures.  The  proportion  of 
success  was,  it  thus  appears,  much  less  than  under  the  pre- 
viously described  conditions,  but  still  much  beyond  what 
chance  would  produce.  Of  the  6  failures  in  1890,  one  was  a 
case  in  which  Mr.  Smith  made  a  mistake  as  to  which  finger  we 
had  selected,  but  succeeded  with  the  one  he  thought  of.  In 
another  case  the  left  thumb  instead  of  the  right  thumb  became 
insensitive.  In  the  other  4  cases  no  finger  at  all  was  affected. 


104  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

Of  the  10  failures  in  1892,  no  effect  was  produced  in  4 
cases ;  in  another  the  right  (viz.,  the  little)  finger  of  the  wrong 
hand  became  insensitive  i1  in  4  cases  an  adjoining  finger  was 
affected— once  only  slightly— instead  of  that  selected,  and  in 
the  remaining  case  a  finger  distant  from  the  selected  one  was 
slightly  affected. 

Six  experiments  were  made  with  Mr.  Smith  look- 
ing at  the  finger  through  the  opera-glass  at  a  distance 
of  from  22  to  25  feet;  in  three  cases  the  experiment 
succeeded,  in  three  another  finger  was  affected  instead 
of  that  selected.  Fourteen  experiments  were  made 
with  a  closed  door  intervening  between  percipient 
and  agent ;  2  only  succeeded,  and  in  8  a  wrong 
finger  was  affected,  no  effect  at  all  being  produced 
in  the  remaining  4  cases.  In  a  further  series  of 
4  trials  Mr.  Smith  held  his  hand  near  the  per- 
cipient, and  willed  to  produce  no  effect.  The  trials 
were  successful.  In  all  these  experiments  P.  was 
the  percipient 

The  rigidity  was  tested,  as  before,  by  asking  the 
subject  to  close  his  hands  ;  the  anaesthesia,  as  a  rule, 
by  touches  or  the  induction  coil.  Tested  by  the 
latter  means  it  was  found,  as  the  current  was  gradu- 
ally increased  to  the  maximum,  that  the  insensibility 
was  not  always  complete.  Flexibility  and  sensation 
were  usually  restored,  for  economy  of  time,  by  means 
of  upward  passes ;  but  a  few  trials  made  later  in  the 
series  served  to  show  that  the  finger  could  be  restored 
to  its  normal  condition  by  a  mere  effort  of  will  on  the 
part  of  the  agent.  In  some  cases  when  their  attention 
was  specially  directed  to  their  sensations  the  subjects 
were  able  to  indicate  beforehand  the  finger  operated 
on,  by  reason  of  the  feeling  of  cold  in  it  But  as  a 
rule  they  appeared  to  be  unaware  which  finger  was 
affected.  It  is  perhaps  needless  to  point  out  that  no 
conscious  effort  on  their  part  could  have  produced 
the  results  described. 

1  It  happened  on  another  occasion  under  these  conditions  that  the 
right  little  finger  was  slightly  affected  when  the  left  little  finger,  which 
had  been  selected,  was  so  in  a  more  decided  manner. 


CHAPTER  V. 

EXPERIMENTAL    PRODUCTION    OF    TELEPATHIC 
EFFECTS   AT   A  DISTANCE. 

IN  the  cases  so  far  described,  where  success  has  been 
attained,  the  agent  and  percipient,  if  not  actually  in 
the  same  room,  have  been  separated  by  a  distance 
not  exceeding  at  the  most  25  or  30  feet.  The 
analogy  of  the  physical  forces  would,  of  course,  have 
prepared  us  to  find  that  the  effect  of  telepathy 
diminishes  in  proportion  to  the  distance  through 
which  it  has  to  act.  And  in  fact  we  have  but  few 
records  of  successful  experiments  at  a  distance.  Yet, 
on  the  other  hand,  we  are  confronted  by  a  large  body 
of  evidence  for  the  spontaneous  affection  of  one  mind 
by  another,  and  that  at  a  distance  frequently  of 
hundreds  of  miles.  It  is  difficult  to  resist  the  con- 
clusion, in  view  of  the  close  similarity,  in  many  cases, 
of  the  effects  produced,  that  the  force  operating  in 
these  spontaneous  phenomena  is  identical  with,  or  at 
least  closely  allied  to,  that  which  causes  the  transfer 
of  sensations  or  images  from  agent  to  percipient 
within  the  compass  of  a  London  drawing-room.  It 
is  probable,  indeed,  that  the  non-experimental  evi- 
dence, for  reasons  already  alluded  to,  and  discussed 
at  length  in  the  succeeding  chapter,  should  be 
generously  discounted.  But  it  is  not  easy  for  an 
impartial  inquirer  to  reject  it  altogether.  Nor  indeed 
is  any  such  summary  solution  required  by  the  results 


106  APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

of  experimental  telepathy.  It  is  true  that  experi- 
ments at  a  distance  have  seldom  succeeded,  and  that 
we  have  no  record  of  any  long-continued  series  of 
such  experiments  at  all  comparable  to  those  con- 
ducted, e.g.,  by  Mr.  Guthrie  or  Mrs.  Henry  Sidgwick 
at  close  quarters.  But  it  is  also  probably  true  that 
such  experiments  have  been  comparatively  seldom 
attempted.  And  if  account  be  taken  of  the  various 
drawbacks  incident  to  experiments  at  a  distance,  the 
amount  of  success  already  achieved,  though  no  doubt 
less  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  serious  and  well- 
conceived  attempts  than  is  the  case  with  experiments 
conducted  under  the  more  usual  conditions,  is  yet 
far  from  discouraging.  For  trials  at  a  distance  are 
tedious  ;  they  consume  much  time,  and  call  for  long 
preparation  and  careful  pre-arrangemcnt.  The  diffi- 
culties of  securing  the  necessary  freedom  from  dis- 
turbance are  probably  increased  when  agent  and 
percipient  are  separated.  The  interest  in  such  experi- 
ments is  difficult  to  maintain  apart  from  the  stimulus 
of  a  rapid  succession  of  trials  with  an  immediate  re- 
cord of  the  results.  Lastly,  such  experiments  would 
generally  be  undertaken  only  after  a  series  of  trials 
at  close  quarters  ;  after,  that  is,  some  portion  at  least 
of  the  original  stock  of  energy  and  enthusiasm  has 
been  exhausted.  And  even  when  such  considerations 
have  no  effect  upon  the  experimenter,  it  is  likely,  as 
has  been  already  pointed  out,  that  the  novel  condi- 
tions would  of  themselves  affect  unfavourably  the 
imagination  of  the  percipient,  and  thus  prejudice  the 
results.  That,  notwithstanding  these  various  draw- 
backs, there  have  been  several  successful  series  of 
experiments  at  a  distance  is  a  matter  of  good  augury 
for  the  future. 

It  is  much  to  be  desired  that  investigators  should 
give  attention  to  obtaining  more  results  in  this  branch 
of  the  inquiry.  For  independently  of  the  fact  that 
results  of  the  kind  form  an  indispensable  link  between 
instances  of  thought-transference  at  close  quarters 


EXPERIMENTS  AT  A  DISTANCE.  107 

and  the  more  striking  spontaneous  cases  at  a  distance, 
it  is  important  to  observe  that  in  experiments  of  the 
kind  described  in  the  present  chapter  the  gravest 
objection  which  is  at  present  urged,  and  may  fairly 
continue  to  be  urged,  against  most  experiments  at 
close  quarters — viz.,  the  risk  of  unconscious  appre- 
hension through  normal  channels — is  no  longer  applic- 
able. Moreover,  the  results  can  only  be  attributed 
to  fraud  on  the  extreme  assumption  that  both  parties 
to  the  experiment  are  implicated  in  deliberate  and 
systematic  collusion. 

Induction  of  Sleep  at  a  distance. 

Some  of  the  most  striking  experimental  cases, 
which  arc  concerned  with  the  production  of  hallu- 
cinations, are  reserved  for  later  discussion.  (See 
Chapter  X.) 

But  perhaps  the  most  valuable  body  of  testimony 
for  the  agency  of  thought-transference  at  a  distance 
is  to  be  found  in  the  experiments  recorded  by  French 
observers  in  the  induction  of  sleep.  It  is  not  a  little 
remarkable  that  this,  one  of  its  rarest  and  most 
striking  manifestations,  should  have  been  among 
the  first  and,  until  recently,  almost  the  only  form  of 
telepathy  which  attracted  attention  amongst  French 
investigators.  Moreover,  of  late  years  at  any 
rate,  this  particular  form  of  experiment  has  rarely 
succeeded  except  in  France,  and  with  hypnotic  sub- 
jects. But  as  the  number  of  physicians  who  practise 
hypnotism  increases  in  other  countries,  we  may  no 
doubt  hope  to  see  the  observations  already  made 
confirmed  and  enlarged.  The  analogy  of  the  experi- 
ments in  the  induction  of  anaesthesia  by  thought-trans- 
ference, recorded  in  the  last  chapter,  would  perhaps 
have  prepared  us  to  accept  the  induction  of  sleep  as 
a  not  jmprobable  effect  of  telepathy.  But  we  are 
not  without  more  direct  testimony.  The  opening 


IOS  APPARITIONS  AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

sentences  of  Professor  Janet's  account  of  the  experi- 
ment with  Madame  B.  show  us  that,  in  this  case  at  all 
events,  the  conscious  will  of  the  operator  was  necessary 
to  produce  the  hypnotic  trance,  even  at  close  quarters. 
When,  therefore,  we  find  that  tht  same  cause,  operat- 
ing at  a  distance,  is  constantly  followed  by  a  like 
effect,  there  can  be  no  reasonable  ground  for  refusing 
to  recognise  the  operator's  will  as  in  this  case  also 
the  cause  of  the  sleep;  unless,  indeed,  we  are  prepared 
to  attribute  all  the  results  to  chance. 


No.  29. — Experiments  by  MM.  GlBERT  and  JANET. 

In  the  autumn  of  1885  Professor  Pierre  Janet  of 
Havre  witnessed  some  trials  made  by  Dr.  Gibert 
of  the  same  town  on  Madame  B.,  a  patient  of  his  own. 
Madame  B.,  whose  fame  has  now  reached  beyond  her 
native  land,  is  described  by  Professor  Janet  as  an 
honest  peasant  woman,  in  good  health,  with  no 
indications  of  hysteria.  She  has  been  hypnotised 
since  childhood  by  various  persons,  and  is  occasionally 
liable  to  spontaneous  attacks  of  somnambulism.  One 
of  the  most  remarkable  features  presented  by  Madame 
B/s  induced  trances  is  that  she  can  be  awakened  by 
the  person  who  hypnotised  her  and  by  no  one 
else;  and  that  his  hand  alone  can  produce  partial 
or  general  contractures,  and  subsequently  restore  her 
limbs  to  their  normal  'condition. 

"  One  day,"  to  quote  Professor  Janet  ("  Note  sur  qtielques 
Ph^nom^nes  de  Somnambulisme,"  Revue  Philosophique,  Feb. 
1886),  "M.  Gibert  was  holding  Madame  B.'s  hand  to  hypnotise 
her  (pour  Vendormir\  but  he  was  visibly  preoccupied  and 
thinking  of  other  matters,  and  the  trance  did  not  supervene. 
This  experiment,  repeated  by  me  in  various  forms,  proved  to 
us  that  in  order  to  entrance  Madame  B.  it  was  necessary  to 
concentrate  one's  thought  intensely  on  the  suggestion  to  sleep 
which  was  given  to  her,  and  the  more  the  operator's  thought 
wandered  the  more  difficult  it  became  to  induce  the  trance. 


EXPERIMENTS  AT  A  DISTANCE,  IO9 

This  influence  of  the  operator's  thought,  however  extraordinary 
it  may  seem,  predominates  in  this  case  to  such  an  extent  that 
it  replaces  all  other  causes.  If  one  presses  Madame  B.'s  hand 
without  the  thought  of  hypnotising  her,  the  trance  is  not 
induced ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  one  can  succeed  in  sending 
her  to  sleep  by  thinking  of  it  without  pressing  her  hand." 

Of  course  in  experiments  of  this  kind  no  pre- 
cautions could  exclude  the  chance  that  some 
suggestion  of  what  was  expected  might  reach  the 
percipient's  mind  through  the  gestures,  the  attitude, 
or  even  the  silence  of  the  experimenter.  But,  acting 
on  the  clue  thus  given,  MM.  Gibert  and  Janet 
succeeded  in  impressing  mentally  on  Madame  B. 
commands  which  were  punctually  executed  on  the 
following  day.  During  the  same  period  Dr.  Gibert 
made  three  attempts,  all  of  which  met  with  partial 
success,  in  inducing  the  hypnotic  trance  by  mental 
suggestion  given  at  a  distance.  Subsequently,  during 
February  and  March  1886,  and  again  during  April 
and  May  of  the  same  year,  these  trials  were  repeated 
with  striking  results.  During  one  of  the  trials  which 
took  place  in  April  Mr.  F.  W.  H.  Myers  and  Dr.  A. 
T.  Myers  were  present,  and  from  their  contemporary 
record  the  following  account  is  taken.  Throughout 
these  trials,  it  should  be  stated,  Madame  B.  was  in 
the  Pavilion,  a  house  occupied  by  Dr.  Gibert's  sister, 
and  distant  about  two-thirds  of  a  mile  from  Dr. 
Gibert's  own  house.  The  distance  intervening 
between  agent  and  percipient  in  this  series  of 
experiments  was  in  no  case  less  than  a  quarter  of 
a  mile  or  more  than  one  mile.  In  the  first  trial 
described  by  Mr.  Myers  (18  in  the  subjoined  table) 
Madame  B.  actually  went  to  sleep  about  twenty 
minutes  after  the  effort  at  willing  had  been  made; 
but  as  some  of  the  party  had  in  the  interval  entered 
the  house  where  she  was  and  found  her  awake,  it 
seems  possible  that  their  coming  had  suggested  the 
idea  of  sleep.  In  the  second  case  (No.  19)  an  attempt 
to  will  Madame  B.  to  leave  her  bed  at  11.35  P.M. 


I IO  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

and  come  to  Dr.  Gibert's  house  had  failed — the 
only  result,  possibly  due  to  other  causes,  being 
an  unusually  prolonged  sleep  and  a  headache 
on  waking.  Subsequently,  to  quote  Mr.  Myers' 
account, 

"  (20)  On  the  morning  of  the  22nd  we  again  selected  by  lot 
an  hour  (u  A.M.)  at  which  M.  Gibert  should  will,  from  his 
dispensary  (which  is  close  to  his  house),  that  Madame  B. 
should  go  to  sleep  in  the  Pavilion.  It  was  agreed  that  a  rather 
longer  time  should  be  allowed  for  the  process  to  take  effect ; 
as  it  had  been  observed  (see  M.  Janet's  previous  communi- 
cation) that  she  sometimes  struggled  against  the  influence, 
and  averted  the  effect  for  a  time  by  putting  her  hands  in  cold 
water,  etc.  At  11.25  we  entered  the  Pavilion  quietly,  and 
almost  at  once  she  descended  from  her  room  to  the  salon^ 
profoundly  asleep.  Here,  however,  suggestion  might  again 
have  been  at  work.  We  did  not,  of  course,  mention  M.  Gibert's 
attempt  of  the  previous  night.  But  she  told  us  in  her  sleep 
that  she  had  been  very  ill  in  the  night,  and  repeatedly  ex- 
claimed :  *  Pourquoi  M.  Gibert  m'a-t-il  fait  souffrir?  Mais  j'ai 
lave  les  mains  continuellement.'  This  is  what  she  does  when 
she  wishes  to  avoid  being  influenced. 

"(21)  In  the  evening  (22nd)  we  all  dined  at  M.  Gibert's,  and 
in  the  evening  M.  Gibert  made  another  attempt  to  put  her  to 
sleep  at  a  distance  from  his  house  in  the  Rue  Sery, — she  being 
at  the  Pavilion,  Rue  de  la  Ferme, — and  to  bring  her  to  his 
house  by  an  effort  of  will.  At  8.55  he  retired  to  his  study; 
and  MM.  Ochorowicz,  Marillier,  Janet,  and  A.  T.  Myers  went 
to  the  Pavilion,  and  waited  outside  in  the  street,  out  of  sight  of 
the  house.  At  9.22  Dr.  Myers  observed  Madame  B.  coming 
half-way  out  of  the  garden-gate,  and  again  retreating.  Those 
who  saw  her  more  closely  observed  that  she  was  plainly  in  the 
somnambulic  state,  and  was  wandering  about  and  muttering. 
At  9.25  she  came  out  (with  eyes  persistently  closed,  so  far  as 
could  be  seen),  walked  quickly  past  MM.  Janet  and  Marillier 
without  noticing  them,  and  made  for  M.  Gibert's  house,  though 
not  by  the  usual  or  shortest  route.  (It  appeared  afterwards 
that  the  bonne  had  seen  her  go  into  the  salon  at  8.45,  and  issue 
thence  asleep  at  9. 15  :  had  not  looked  in  between  those  times.) 
She  avoided  lamp-posts,  vehicles,  etc.,  but  crossed  and  re- 
crossed  the  street  repeatedly.  No  one  went  in  front  of  her  or 
spoke  to  her.  After  eight  or  ten  minutes  she  grew  much  more 
uncertain  in  gait,  and  paused  as  though  she  would  fall.  Dr. 
Myers  noted  the  moment  in  the  Rue  Faure ;  it  was  9.35. 
At  about  9.40  she  grew  bolder,  and  at  9.45  reached  the  street 


EXPERIMENTS  AT  A  DISTANCE.  Ill 

in  front  of  M.  Gibert's  house.  There  she  met  him,  but  did  not 
notice  him,  and  walked  into  his  house,  where  she  rushed 
hurriedly  from  room  to  room  on  the  ground-floor.  M.  Gibert 
had  to  take  her  hand  before  she  recognised  him.  She  then 
grew  calm. 

"M.  Gibert  said  that  from  8.55  to  9.20  he  thought  intently 
about  her;  from  9.20  to  9.35  he  thought  more  feebly;  at  9.35 
he  gave  the  experiment  up,  and  began  to  play  billiards  ;  but  in 
a  few  minutes  began  to  will  her  again.  It  appeared  that  his 
visit  to  the  billiard-room  had  coincided  with  her  hesitation  and 
stumbling  in  the  street.  But  this  coincidence  may  of  course 
have  been  accidental.  .  .  . 

"  (22)  On  the  23rd,  M.  Janet,  who  had  woke  her  up  and  left 
her  awake,1  lunched  in  our  company,  and  retired  to  his  own 
house  at  4.30  (  a  time  chosen  by  lot)  to  try  to  put  her  to  sleep 
from  thence.  At  5.5  we  all  entered  the  salon  of  the  Pavilion,  and 
found  her  asleep  with  shut  eyes,  but  sewing  vigorously  (being 
in  that  stage  in  which  movements  once  suggested  are  automati- 
cally continued).  Passing  into  the  talkative  state,  she  said  to 
M.  Janet,  'C'est  vous  qui  m'avez  fait  dormir  a  quatre  heures 
et  demi.'  The  impression  as  to  the  hour  may  have  been  a 
suggestion  received  from  M.  Janet's  mind.  We  tried  to  make 
her  believe  that  it  was  M.  Gibert  who  had  sent  her  to  sleep,  but 
she  maintained  that  she  had  felt  that  it  was  M.  Janet. 

"  (23)  On  April  24th  the  whole  party  chanced  to  meet  at  M. 
Janet's  house  at  3  P.M.,  and  he  then,  at  my  suggestion,  entered 
his  study  to  will  that  Madame  B.  should  sleep.  We  waited  in 
his  garden,  and  at  3.20  proceeded  together  to  the  Pavilion, 
which  I  entered  first  at  3.30,  and  found  Madame  B.  profoundly 
sleeping  over  her  sewing,  having  ceased  to  sew.  Becoming 
talkative,  she  said  to  M.  Janet,  '  C'est  vous  qui  m'avez  com- 
mand^ She  said  that  she  fell  asleep  at  3.5  P.M."  (Proc.  S.P.R., 
vol.  iv.  pp.  133-136.) 

The  subjoined  table,  taken,  with  a  few  verbal 
alterations,  from  Mr.  Myers'  article,  gives  a  complete 
list  of  the  experiments  in  the  induction  of  trance  at 
a  distance  (sommeil  d  distance)  made  by 'MM.  Janet 
and  Gibert  up  to  the  end  of  May  1886: — 

1  An  experiment  of  another  kind,  the  description  of  which  is  here 
omitted,  had  been  made  on  the  morning  of  this  day. 


112  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 


o'g<2 
6  £§ 

fcw  a 

Date. 

Operator. 

Hour  when 
given. 

Remarks. 

O    O  r-4 

&  a 

1885. 

i 

October  3 

Gibert 

11.30A.M. 

She  washes  hands  and 

wards  off  trance. 

? 

2 

9 

do. 

11  40A.M. 

Found  entranced  11.45. 

i 

3 

„      14 

do. 

4.15  P.M. 

Found    entranced    4.30: 

had  been  asleep  about 

15  minutes. 

i 

1886. 

4 

Feb.       22 

Janet 

She  washes  hands  and 

wards  off  trance. 

? 

5 

„         25 

do. 

5  P.M. 

Asleep  at  once. 

i 

6 

„          20 

do. 

Mere     discomfort     ob- 

served. 

0 

7 

March     1 

do. 

do.            do. 

0 

8 

2 

do. 

3  P.M. 

Found  asleep  at  4  :  has 

slept  about  an  hour. 

1 

9 

,,         4 

do. 

•• 

Will  interrupted  :  trance 
coincident  but  incom- 

plete. 

1 

10 

5 

do. 

5-S.10  P.M. 

Found  asleep  a  few  min- 
utes afterwards. 

1 

11 

6 

Gibert 

8  P.M. 

Found  asleep  8.  3. 

1 

12 

10 

do. 

Success—  no  details. 

1 

13 

14 

Janet 

3P.M. 

Success—  no  details. 

1 

14 

„        10 

Gibeit 

9P.M. 

Brings  her  to  his  house  : 

she  leaves  her  house  a 

few  minutes  after  9. 

1 

15 

April     18 

Janet 

Found     asleep     in     10 

minutes. 

1 

16 

„         19 

Gibeit 

4PM. 

Found  asleep  4.15. 

1 

17 

„          20 

do. 

8  P.M. 

Made   to  come    to    his 

house. 

1 

18 

„         21 

do. 

5.f>0  P.M. 

Asleep  about  6.  10:  trance 

too  tardy. 

? 

19 

„         21 

do. 

11.35P.M. 

Attempt  at  trance  dur- 

ing sleep. 

0 

20 

22 

do. 

11  A.M. 

Asleep  11.25  :  trance  too 

tardy. 

? 

21 

22 

do. 

9  P.M. 

Comes    to    his    house  : 

leaves  her  house  9.15. 

1 

22 

23 

Janet 

4.30  P.M. 

Found  asleep  5.5,   says 

she    has    slept    since 

4  30. 

1 

23 

24 

do. 

3P.M. 

Found  asleep  3.30,  says 

she  has  slept  since  3.6. 

1 

21 

May         5 

do. 

tt 

Success  —  no  details. 

1 

25 

•6 

do. 

•  • 

Success—  no  details. 

1 

18 

We  have  then  in  25  trials  18  complete  and 
4  partial  or  doubtful  successes.  In  two  of  the 
latter  Madame  B.  was  found  washing  her  hands  to 
ward  off  the  trance,  and  in  two  others  the  trance 
supervened  only  after  an  interval  of  twenty  minutes 
or  more,  and  under  circumstances  which  rendered  it 


EXPERIMENTS  AT  A   DISTANCE.  113 

doubtful  whether  telepathy  were  the  cause.  It  is 
important  to  note  that  during  these  earlier  visits  of 
Madame  B.  to  Havre,  about  two  months  in  all,  she 
only  once  fell  into  ordinary  sleep  during  the  daytime, 
and  twice  became  spontaneously  entranced;  and 
that  she  never  left  the  house  in  the  evenings  except 
on  the  three  occasions  (14,  17,  21),  on  which  she 
did  so  in  apparent  response  to  a  mental  suggestion. 
There  is  little  ground,  therefore,  for  attributing  the 
results  above  given  to  chance. 

A  further  series  of  trials  with  the  same  percipient 
was  conducted  by  Professor  Janet  during  the  autumn 
of  1886.  The  results,  communicated  by  him  to 
Professor  Richet,  were  published  by  the  latter  in  the 
Proceedings  of  the  S.P.R^  vol.  v.  pp.  43-4S.1  In 
order  to  facilitate  comparison  I  have  thrown  these 
later  results  also  into  tabular  form.  In  the  later  trials 
it  will  be  observed  that  there  is  a  tolerably  constant 
retardation  of  the  effect.  The  exact  degree  of  the 
retardation  it  was  not  always  possible  to  ascertain,  as 
it  was  not  practicable  to  keep  Madame  B.  continually 
under  observation,  and  to  have  let  those  at  the 
Pavilion  into  the  secret,  and  to  have  asked  them  to 
exercise  special  vigilance  at  the  time  of  the  experi- 
ments would  have  entailed  the  risk  of  vitiating  the 
results.  Moreover,  in  order  to  avoid  giving  any 
suggestion  by  the  hour  of  his  arrival,  M.  Janet  made 
it  a  rule  during  a  great  part  of  this  period  to  come  to 
the  house  at  the  same  hour — 4  P.M.  in  most  cases — 
for  several  days  consecutively.  When  an  early  hour, 
therefore,  had  been  chosen  for  the  experiments,  the 
exact  degree  of  success  could  only  be  determined  if 
Madame  B.'s  movements  had  chanced  at  the  right 
time  to  come  under  the  observation  of  those  in  the 
house.  During  the  period  of  the  trials  Madame  B. 
fell  asleep  in  the  daytime  spontaneously  only  four 
times. 

1  An  account  of  these  experiments  is  also  contained  in  an  article  by 
M.  Richet  in  the  Revue  de  I* Hypnotism*  for  February  1888. 

8 


114  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 


°i| 
III 

Date. 

Hour  when 
given. 

Remarks. 

Success 
or 
Failure. 

1886. 

I 

8th  Sept. 

3  P.  M- 

Found  asleep  at  4  P.  M.    M.  J. 

entered  unseen  and  without 

knocking    

? 

2 

9th  Sept. 

3P.M. 

Madame    B.    complained   of 

headache    

F. 

3 

nth  Sept. 

9  (?  A  M  ) 

Found   at    10,   "  troublee   et 

etourdie  "... 

F. 

4 

I4th  Sept. 

4  P.M. 

M.  J.  enters  at  4.  15.   Madame 

B.  says  she  was  asleep,  but 

wakened     by     ringing     of 

door-bell     

? 

51 

iSih  Sept. 

3.30  P.M. 

Found  asleep  at  4  P.  M.  ;  states 

she  was  put  to  sleep  at  3.30 

S. 

6l 

igth  Sept. 

3  P.M. 

Went  to  sleep  at  about  3.  15 

S. 

7 

23rd  Sept. 

2  P.  M. 

She  was  out  walking 

F. 

8 

24th  Sept. 

3.  1  5  P.  M. 

Found    asleep    at    4.      Had 

been  seen  awake  at  3.15  ... 

? 

9 

26th  Sept. 

3  P.M. 

Walking  in  garden   .. 

F. 

10 

27th  Sept. 

8.30  P.M. 

Commanded  by  M.  Gibert  to 

come  to  his  house.     Left 

the  Pavilion,  entranced,  at 

9.5  P.M.  [in  the  account  in 

the  Revue  de  F  Hypnotismc 

the  latter  hour  is  given  at 

9-i5\          

S. 

ii 

29th  Sept. 

3.50P.M. 

Found  asleep  at  4.5  [given  in 

Kevue  as  j.  5]        

S. 

12 

3Oth  Sept. 

3.30  P.M. 

F. 

13 

1st  Oct. 

2.40  P.M. 

She  was  out  walking 

F. 

14 

5th  Oct. 

4  P.  M. 

Fell  asleep  suddenly  at  4  5, 

whilst  talking  with  nurse  in 

garden       

S. 

1C 

6lh  Oct. 

3  P.M. 

F. 

*  j 

16 

9th  Oct. 

j 
3.15  P.M. 

F. 

17 

loth  Oct. 

J     j     ' 

3  20  p  M. 

Found  asleep  at  4.  5 

? 

18 

1  2th  Oct. 

'*  P.M. 

F. 

19 

I3th  Oct. 

j      •  *  *•• 

5  P.M. 

Found  asleep.      Executed  a 

mental  command  given  at 

a  distance  —  viz.,  to  rise  at 

M.  J.'s  entrance    

S. 

20 

I4th  Oct. 

2.30  P.M. 

Found  asleep  at  3.20 

? 

21 

i6th  Oct. 

3  P.M. 

Found  asleep  at  3.30 

S. 

M.  Richet  also  took  part  in  these  two  experiments. 


EXPERIMENTS  AT  A  DISTANCE. 


='N 

m 

Date. 

Hour  when 
given. 

Remarks. 

i°l 

22 

24th  Nov. 

2.30  P.M. 

F. 

27 

3rd  Dec. 

4.  10  P.M. 

F. 

2A 

5th  Dec. 

4  IO  P  M 

F. 

25 
26 

27 

28 

6th  Dec. 

7th  Dec. 
roth  Dec. 
nth  Dec. 

4.10  P.M. 

2.30  P.M. 
4-20  P.M. 
3.  1C  P.M. 

Found   awake,   washing   her 
hands 
Found  asleep  at  3.5... 
She  was  out  walking 

? 
? 
F. 
? 

29 

•3Q 

1  3th  Dec. 
I4th  Dec. 

4.5  P.M. 
II.3O  A.M. 

Found  asleep  at  4.25.     Had 
been    seen    awake    a   few 
minutes  after  4  P.M. 

S. 
F. 

'U 

iSth  Dec. 

F. 

^2 

2  ist  Dec. 

F. 

•27 

22nd  Dec. 

F. 

34 
35 

23rd  Dec. 
25th  Dec. 

3  P-M. 

3.  15  P.M. 

Found  asleep  at  3.40 
She  was  out  walking.     Bad 
headache  came  on  at  3.20. 
Returned  hurriedly,  and  at 
once  fell  asleep  in  the  salon. 

? 
S. 

Throughout  the  series,  except  in  case  10,  M.  Janet 
was  the  operator.  It  will  be  seen  that  in  the  35 
trials  there  were  nine  cases  in  which  Madame  B. 
was  found  asleep  within  half-an-hour  of  the  attempt 
being  made  to  entrance  her.  In  six  other  cases  she 
was  found  asleep  after  a  longer  interval,  but  there  is 
nothing  to  indicate  that  the  sleep  did  not  actually 
supervene  at  the  right  time.  In  one  case  she  was 
found  awake  within  fifteen  minutes  of  the  trial,  but 
stated  that  she  had  been  awakened  by  the  ringing  of 
the  bell  which  announced  M.  Janet's  arrival.  In  one 
other  case  she  was  found  washing  her  hands  to  ward 
off  the  trance.  Of  the  17  failures  Madame  B.  was 
out  walking  in  four  cases  at  the  time  of  the  trial,  a 
circumstance  which  no  doubt  diminished  the  chances 
of  success.  In  two  cases  headache  or  disturbance 
were  produced  ;  of  the  remaining  1 1  trials  no  de- 
tails are  given,  and  it  is  presumed  that  no  unusual 


1 16  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

effect  was  observed,  and  that  there  was  no  apparent 
cause  for  the  failure.  Of  course,  experiments  carried 
on  under  these  conditions,  the  trials  being  confined 
for  the  most  part  within  a  narrow  range  of  hours,  and 
the  subject  liable  to  spontaneous  trance,  offer  some 
scope  for  chance  coincidence.  But  as  Madame  B. 
actually  fell  asleep  spontaneously  on  only  four 
occasions  during  the  period  over  which  the  trials 
extended,  it  will  probably  be  considered  that  the 
number  of  coincidences,  imperfect  as  they  were,  was 
considerably  more  than  could  plausibly  be  attributed 
to  accident  or  self-suggestion.1 

In  January  1887  M.  Richet  made  some  experi- 
ments of  the  same  kind  on  Madame  B.  Of  9  trials, 
however,  two  only  could  be  described  as  completely 
successful,  and  three  more  as  doubtful.  A  few  further 
trials,  in  December  1887  and  January  1888,  were  even 
less  successful.  M.  Richet  has  attempted  on  several 
occasions  to  influence  other  subjects  at  a  distance, 
but  no  series  of  successful  results  was  attained  ;  and 
isolated  coincidences  of  the  kind  have,  of  course,  little 
evidential  value  (loc.  cit^  pp.  47-5 1).2 

No.  30. — Experiments  by  DR.  DUFAY. 

In  a  paper  published  in  the  Revue  Philosophique  of 
September  1888,  M.  Dufay,  a  physician  formerly  in 
practice  at  Blois,  and  now  a  Senator  of  France, 
records  several  instances  in  which  he  has  himself 
succeeded  in  producing  sleep  at  a  distance.  In  one 
case  he  hypnotised  from  his  box  in  the  theatre,  as  he 
believes  without  her  knowledge,  a  young  actress  who 
had  been  a  patient  of  his,  and  caused  her,  whilst  in 
the  state  of  lucid  somnambulism,  to  play  a  new  and 

1  It  is  not  stated  whether  the  hour  of  the  experiment  was  chosen  by 
lot,  but  this  precaution  was  taken  in  many  of  the  earlier  experiments. 

2  An  account  of  these  experiments  was  also  contributed  by  M.  Richet 
to  the  Revue  de  f  Hypnotism ft  Feb.  1888. 


EXPERIMENTS  AT   A  DISTANCE.  117 

difficult  part  with  more  success  than  she  would  have 
been  likely  to  achieve  in  the  normal  state.  In  this 
particular  case,  however,  it  seems  possible  that  the 
subject  may  have  received  some  intimation  of  Dr. 
Dufay's  presence  in  the  house,  and  that  the  hypnotic 
state  may  have  been  due  to  expectation.  Another 
case  was  that  of  Madame  C,  who  had  been  for  some 
time  treated  hypnotically  by  Dr.  Dufay  for  periodical 
attacks  of  sickness  and  headache.  So  sensitive  did 
this  patient  become  to  his  suggestions  that  she  would 
fall  into  the  hypnotic  sleep  as  soon  as  the  bell  rang 
to  announce  his  coming,  and  before  he  had  actually 
entered  the  house.  The  circumstances  under  which 
Dr.  Dufay  first  made  a  deliberate  attempt  to  influence 
Madame  C.  at  a  distance  were  as  follows  : — He  was 
in  attendance  on  a  patient  whom  he  was  unable  to 
leave,  when  he  was  unexpectedly  summoned  by 
Monsieur  C.  to  hypnotise  Madame  C,  who  was  in  the 
height  of  an  attack.  He  assured  Monsieur  C.  that  on 
his  return  home  he  would  find  Madame  C.  asleep  and 
cured,  as  proved  actually  to  be  the  case.  However, 
here  also,  as  Dr.  Dufay  points  out,  self-suggestion 
is  a  possible  explanation.  The  following  case  seems 
less  open  to  suspicion  on  this  ground  : — 

"  On  another  occasion,"  Dr.  Dufay  writes,  "  Madame  C.  was 
in  perfect  health,  but  her  name  happening  to  be  mentioned  in 
my  hearing,  the  idea  struck  me  that  I  would  mentally  order  her 
to  sleep,  without  her  wishing  it  this  time,  and  also  without  her 
suspecting  it.  Then,  an  hour  later,  I  went  to  her  house  and 
asked  the  servant  who  opened  the  door  whether  an  instrument, 
which  I  had  mislaid  out  of  my  case,  had  been  found  in  Madame 
C.'s  room. 

"  '  Is  not  that  the  doctor's  voice  that  I  hear?'  asked  Monsieur 
C.  from  the  top  of  the  staircase  ;  '  beg  him  to  come  up.  Just 
imagine,'  he  said  to  me,  '  I  was  going  to  send  for  you.  Nearly 
an  hour  ago  my  wife  lost  consciousness,  and  her  mother  and  I 
have  not  been  able  to  bring  her  to  her  senses.  Her  mother, 
who  wished  to  take  her  into  the  country,  is  distracted.  .  .' 

"  I  did  not  dare  to  confess  myself  guilty  of  this  catastrophe, 
but  was  betrayed  by  Madame  C.,  who  gave  me  her  hand,  saying, 
'  You  did  well  to  put  me  to  sleep,  Doctor,  because  I  was  going  to 


1 1 8  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

allow  myself  to  be  taken  away,  and  then  I  should  not  have  been 
able  to  finish  my  embroidery.' 

"  *  You  have  another  piece  of  embroidery  in  hand  ? ' 
" c  Yes  ;  a  mantle-border  ...  for  your  birthday.     You  must 
not  look  as  though  you  knew  about  it,  when  I  am  awake,  be- 
cause I  want  to  give  you  a  surprise.' 

"  I  repeated  the  experiment  many  times  with  Madame  C., 
and  always  with  success,  which  was  a  great  help  to  me  when 
unable  to  go  to  her  at  once  when  sent  for.  I  even  completed 
the  experiment  by  also  waking  her  from  a  distance,  solely  by 
an  act  of  volition,  which  formerly  I  should  not  have  believed 
possible.  The  agreement  in  time  was  so  perfect  that  no  doubt 
could  be  entertained. 

"  To  conclude,  I  was  about  to  take  a  holiday  of  six  weeks, 
and  should  thus  be  absent  when  one  of  the  attacks  was  due. 
So  it  was  settled  between  Monsieur  C.  and  myself  that,  as  soon 
as  the  headache  began,  he  should  let  me  know  by  telegraph  ; 
that  I  should  then  do  from  afar  off  what  succeeded  so  well 
near  at  hand  ;  that  after  five  or  six  hours  I  should  endeavour  to 
awaken  the  patient ;  and  that  Monsieur  C.  should  let  me  know 
by  means  of  a  second  telegram  whether  the  result  had  been 
satisfactory.  He  had  no  doubt  about  it  ;  I  was  less  certain. 
Madame  C.  did  not  know  that  I  was  going  away. 

"  The  sound  of  meanings  one  morning  announced  to  Monsieur 
C.  that  the  moment  had  come  ;  without  entering  his  wife's 
room  he  ran  to  the  telegraph  office,  and  I  received  his  message 
at  ten  o'clock.  He  returned  home  again  at  that  same  hour,  and 
found  his  wife  asleep  and  not  suffering  any  more.  At  four  o'clock 
I  willed  that  she  should  wake,  and  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening 
I  received  a  second  telegram:  *  Satisfactory  result,  woke  at  four 
o'clock.  Thanks.' 

"  And  I  was  then  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Sully-sur-Loire,  28 
leagues — 112  kilometres — from  Blois." 

Similar  experiments  have  been  recorded  by,  amongst 
others,  Dr.  J.  H^ricourt,1  a  colleague  of  M.  Richet  in 
the  editing  of  the  Revue  Scientifique,  Dr.  Dusart,1  and 
Dr.  Dariex.2  In  the  last  case  there  were  only  five 
trials,  the  experiments  being  then  discontinued  at 
the  request  of  the  patient  The  first  three  trials  were 
completely  successful,  the  sleep  supervening  within, 

1  Revue  Philosofhique,  February  and  April  1886.     A  translation  of 
these  accounts  is  given  in  the  Proc.  S*P.R.>  vol.  v.  pp.  222,  223. 
8  Annales  des  Science*  Psychiques,  vol.  iii.  pp»  257-267, 


EXPERIMENTS  AT  A  DISTANCE.  119 

at  most,  a  few  minutes  of  the  time  chosen  by  the 
agent. 

The  following  narrative  resembles  those  cited  above 
in  its  general  features.  But  in  view  of  the  nature  of 
the  effect  produced — a  painful  hysterical  attack — it  is 
perhaps  hardly  a  matter  for  regret  that  the  case  is 
without  any  exact  parallel. 

No.  31. — By  DR.  TOLOSA-LATOUR. 

In  this  account,  taken  from  a  letter  written  to  M. 
Richet  by  Dr.  Tolosa-Latour  on  the  5th  March  1891 
(Annales  des  Sciences  PsycJiiques,  Sept-Oct.  1893), 
Dr.  Latour  explains  that  he  had  repeatedly  hypnotised 
a  lady  who  was  seized  in  September  1886  with 
hysterical  paralysis,  and  had  ultimately  succeeded  in 
effecting  by  this  means  a  complete  cure.  Prior  to  his 
treatment,  in  1885,  she  had  suffered  for  some  time 
from  daily  hysterical  attacks,  and  when  she  came 
under  Dr.  Latour  she  was  still  occasionally  subject  to 
them,  and  found  relief  in  the  hypnotic  sleep.  Both 
symptoms  had  at  the  time  which  he  writes  almost 
completely  disappeared. 

"  I  had  made  some  very  curious  experiments,  but  I  had  never 
thought  about  either  action  at  a  distance  or  clairvoyance.  It 
was  while  leaving  Paris  and  reading  your  [M.  Richet's] 
pamphlet  in  the  carnage  that  the  idea  occurred  to  me  of 
sending  Mdlle.  R.  to  sleep.  It  was  Sunday,  October  the  26th, 
the  very  day  of  my  departure.  I  remember  the  hour  too  ;  it 
was  just  before  reaching  Poitiers,  where  some  relations  of  my 
grandmother  were  expecting  me.  I  told  my  wife  that  I  was 
going  to  try  the  experiment,  and  begged  her  to  say  nothing 
about  it  to  any  one.  I  began  to  fix  my  thoughts  about  six 
o'clock,  and  during  the  journey  from  Poitiers  to  Mignie  (where 
we  stayed  several  days)  I  again  and  again  thought  of  this 
question,  especially  during  the  intervals  of  silence  which  always 
occur  during  a  journey. 

"  I  wished  to  cause  a  violent  hysteric  attack,  as  I  knew  that 
she  had  not  been  dangerously  ill  for  a  long  time.  So  on 
Sunday,  October  the  26th,  from  six  till  nine  o'clock  in  the 
evening,  I  fixed  my  thoughts  intently  on  the  experiment 


120  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

"Then,  on  my  return,  I  asked  my  brother  if  Mdlle.  R.  had 
called  him  in,  as  she  always  did  when  she  was  ill.  Among  the 
patients'  names  I  did  not  find  hers.  It  seemed  almost  certain 
that  my  experiment  had  failed.  A  week  afterwards  I  called  on 
her,  and  was  agreeably  surprised  to  learn  that,  on  the  contrary, 
it  was  a  success,  as  you  will  judge  by  her  letter.  She  does  not 
fix  the  day,  but  her  sister  and  the  nurse  have  told  me  that  it 
was  the  second  Sunday  after  the  festival  of  St.  Theresa— that  is 
to  say,  after  Wednesday  the  isth;  the  first  Sunday  being  the 
iQth,  the  second  is  of  course  the  26th. 

"  This  is  the  letter  :— 

"From  MDLLE.  R.  TO  M.  TOLOSA-LATOUR. 

"March  23^,  1891. 

"MY   EXCELLENT   FRIEND   AND   DEAR   DOCTOR,— I    wanted 

to  write  to  ycu  yesterday  to  give  you  the  particulars  of  the 
attack  I  had  about  the  middle  of  last  October,  but  I  was  not 
able  to  do  so  till  to-day. 

"As  I  told  you,  it  was  about  the  middle  of  October  ;  I  do  not 
remember  the  date,  but  I  recollect  very  well  that  it  was  a 
festival  day,  and  at  half-past  six  in  the  evening. 

"  We  had  just  been  to  see  my  sister  and  brother  ;  we  had  had 
luncheon  with  them.  I  was  perfectly  well,  without  any  excite- 
ment ;  it  was  five  o'clock,  and  I  reached  home  all  right,  but 
when  I  was  sitting  down,  in  the  act  of  eating,  I  found  myself 
unable  to  speak  or  open  my  eyes,  and,  at  the  same  moment,  I 
had  a  very  severe,  long,  and  violent  attack,  such  as  I  do  not 
remember  to  have  had  for  a  long  time. 

"  I  was  so  ill  that  I  thought  of  sending  for  Raphael,1  and  my 
sister  proposed  it,  but  I  thought  that  I  ought  not  to  disturb 
him,  for,  knowing  that  you  were  away,  nobody  could  stop  the 
convulsions  and  the  excitement. 

"  I  suffered  horribly,  for  it  was  an  attack  in  which  I  experi- 
enced, so  to  say,  all  my  previous  sufferings  combined.  I  was 
completely  broken  down,  but  I  have  had  no  other  attacks  since, 
not  even  a  spasm." 

No.  32.— By  J.  H.  P.2 

The  next  case  records  the  execution  by  the  subject 
of  a  simple  command  to  approach  the  operator,  as  in 
some  of  M.  Gibert's  experiments  already  described, 
and  the  partial  execution  of  an  order  of  a  more 

1  Dr.  Litour's  brother,  house-surgeon  at  the  hospital. 

2  See  No.  23,  chap.  iv. 


EXPERIMENTS  AT   A  DISTANCE.  121 

complicated    kind,   given   from   a  distance   of  more 
than  twenty-five  miles : — 

It  is  possible  to  give  M.  a  command  in  the  waking  state,  but 
she  must  be  quiet  at  the  moment  when  she  receives  it. 

We  had  never  made  experiments  of  this  kind  until  R.  one 
day  proposed  that  we  should  try  to  make  M.  come  to  the  room 
where  we  were.  M.  was  in  a  neighbouring  house,  and  could 
not  know  that  we  were  actually  in  a  kiosk  at  the  end  of  the 
garden. 

For  three  minutes  I  gave  her  the  mental  command  to  come. 
I  began  to  think  that  I  had  failed,  and  continued  energetically 
for  three  minutes  more ;  she  did  not  come,  however. 

We  were  just  thinking  that  the  experiment  had  failed  when 
the  door  opened  suddenly  and  M.  appeared. 

"  Well,  do  you  think  I  have  nothing  else  to  do  !  Why  do 
you  call  me  ?  I  have  had  to  leave  everything." 

"  We  wanted  to  say  '  good  morning '  to  you." 

"  Very  well !     I  am  going  away  now." 

She  shook  hands  with  us  and  went  away  quickly;  where- 
upon it  occurred  to  me  to  make  her  stop  just  at  the  gate. 

(Mental  command) — u  I  forbid  you  to  go  out  You  cannot 
open  the  gate  ;  come  back."  And  back  she  came,  furious, 
asking  if  we  were  laughing  at  her. 

Now,  to  send  this  last  command  I  had  not  moved  at  all  from 
my  place,  and  M.  was  completely  invisible  behind  the  garden 
wall ;  moreover,  I  was  a  long  way  from  the  window.  I  told  her 
that  this  time  she  could  open  it,  and  let  her  go. 

I  will  finish  with  another  experiment  of  the  same  kind,  which 
only  partly  succeeded,  but  which  will  serve  to  show  the  intensity 
of  the  mental  transmission  between  M.  and  me.  I  went  away, 
one  morning,  without  thinking  of  M.  I  had  to  be  away  all  day, 
38  kilometres  from  her.  At  2.30  it  occurred  to  me  to  send  her 
a  mental  command,  and  I  repeated  it  for  ten  minutes. 

"Go  at  once  to  the  dining-room  ;  you  will  take  a  book  there 
that  is  on  the  mantelpiece  ;  you  will  take  it  up  to  my  study,  and 
you  will  sit  in  my  armchair  before  my  writing-table."  I  reached 
home  at  night.  The  next  day,  as  soon  as  I  saw  M.,  and  even 
before  saying  good  morning  to  me,  she  cried :  "  I  did  a  clever  thing 
yesterday.  I  must  be  losing  my  wits,  I  suppose  !  Just  imagine  ! 
I  came  down  without  knowing  why,  opened  the  dining-room 
door,  then  went  up  to  your  study,  and  sat  in  your  armchair.  I 
moved  your  papers  about,  then  I  went  back  to  my  work." 

The  command  had  then  been  understood ;  but  she  did  not  go 
into  the  dining-room,  and  she  did  not  take  the  book  from  there. 

J.  II.  P 
(Annales  des  Set.  Psych.  t  May -June  1893.) 


122  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

Transference  of  Simple  Sensations. 

We  may  now  pass  to  experiments  in  the  transfer- 
ence of  simple  impressions  of  the  same  kind  as  those 
dealt  with  in  Chapters  II.  and  III.  The  following  is 
a  record  of  a  series  of  trials  in  the  transference  of 
auditory  impressions : — 

No-  33- — From  Miss  X. 

Miss  X.  is  a  lady  resident  in  London,  who  is  known 
personally  to  the  present  writer  and  other  members 
of  the  S.P.R.  She  has  experienced  all  her  life 
frequent  interchange  of  telepathic  impressions  with 
some  of  her  friends.  At  the  request  of  Mr.  F.  W. 
H.  Myers,  Miss  X.  and  a  friend  D.,  also  living  in 
London,  throughout  the  year  1888,  with  the  exception 
of  three  months  during  which  they  were  living  in  the 
same  house,  kept  diaries  in  which  any  incident  or  feel- 
ing which  might  seem  to  be  telepathically  connected 
with  the  other  was  recorded.  The  ladies  during  a  great 
part  of  the  time  saw  each  other  constantly,  and  com- 
pared notes  of  their  experience.  In  D.'s  diary  for  the 
year  there  are  thirty-five  entries  of  the  kind,  of  which 
twenty  are  believed  to  have  been  recorded  before  it 
was  known  whether  or  not  there  was  any  actual  event 
to  correspond  with  the  impression.  Of  the  twenty 
entries  fourteen  refer  to  hearing  music  played  by 
Miss  X.,  and  two  to  reading  books  at,  as  D.  believed, 
her  telepathic  instigation. 

The  entries  in  D.'s  diary  are  given  in  italics.  The 
degree  of  correspondence  with  the  entries  in  Miss 
X.'s  diary  is  indicated  in  the  words  included  between 
brackets.1 

(i)  Jan.  6th.  Tried  several  books  .  .  ,  finally  took  to 
"Villelte? 

1  Miss  X.'s  notes  have  been  in  some  cases  slightly  abbreviated,  in 
order  to  save  space.  Full  details  of  the  experiments  will  be  found  in 
Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  vi.  pp.  377'397« 


EXPERIMENTS  AT  A  DISTANCE.  123 

(From  Miss  X.'s  diary  it  appears  that  she  willed  D.  to  read 
The  Professor,  also  by  Charlotte  Bronte.) 

(2)  Jan.  -z^rd.     Sonnets,  E.B.B.    10.30  P.M. 

(In  Miss  X.'s  diary,  written  at  about  10  P.M.,  appears  the 
entry,  "  Sonnets  viii.-ix.,  E.B.B.") 

(3)  March  6th.     Hellers,  7.30.    (i.e.,  D.  had  an  impression  of 
hearing  Miss  X.  playing.     Miss  X.  states  that  she  was  actually 
playing  Hellers  at  the  time,  but  there  is  no  note  in  her  diary  of 
the  fact.) 

(4)  March  *jth.    Beethoven  waltzes,  10.    (Correct — recorded 
in  X.'s  diary  after  seeing  D.'s  entry.) 

(5)  March  %th.    No  practice,    (i.e.,  X.,  contrary  to  her  custom, 
was  not  playing  at  this  hour :  correct.) 

(6)  March  <)th.    Music  7.30-8.     (Correct.) 

(7)  March  loth.     ? Music  9.30-10  A.M.     (Correct.     Miss  X. 
had  told  D.  that  she  would  be  out  at  that  hour,  and  had  sub- 
sequently changed  her  plans,  so  that  the  music  was  unexpected 
to  D.,  hence  the  note  of  interrogation.) 

(8)  March  i$th.    7.40.    Music.    (Correct.) 

(9)  March  i^th.    9.30  A.M.    [Music.]    Evening  of  same  day. 
Nothing   but  organs    and  bands^  popular  airs  and  Mikado. 
? Flash  of  Henselt  9  (P.M.) 

(10)  March  i$th.    9-10.     ?  Faint  Henselt. 

(Miss  X.  writes  : — "  I  remember  that  when  D.  showed  me 
these  entries  I  was  specially  interested.  I  was  practising  at 
the  time  some  music  of  Henselt's  she  had  never  heard,  and 
was  playing  this  on  all  five  occasions.  D.  notes  it  on  the 
first  three  vaguely  as  *  Music/  something  which  she  did  not 
recognise.  On  the  I4th  I  played  it  over  to  her,  and  afterwards 
she  recognised  it  imperfectly.  I  was  practising  it  for  her,  know- 
ing she  would  like  it,  so  that  she  was  much  in  my  mind  at  the 
time.") 

The  following  entries  were  made  whilst  D.  and  X. 
were  in  different  and  distant  counties  : — 

( 1 1 )  A  ugust  1 5 th.    Hellers,  9.  i  o- 2  5 .    ( Correct.) 

(12)  August  \7th.   Slumber  Song,  7.35-50.  (Correct.   D.  wrote 
of  her  two  experiences,  and  X.  read  the  letter  aloud  to  her 
hostess,  who  remembered  that  X.  had  actually  played  the  music 
named  above  at  the  time  referred  to.) 

(13)  September  itfh.    Halte,  9  A.M.    (Incorrect.    X.  was  not 
playing.) 

(14)  November  i%th.     Chopin  Dead  March,   War   March 
Athalie,  7.15-8  P.M. 

(15)  November  2$th.    Lieder,  7.30. 

(16)  November  T^th.    Lied,  never  gets  finished.     5.15-20. 
(Miss  X.  writes :— "  On  each  of  the  above  three  occasions  D. 


124  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

asked  me  next  day  what  I  had  played  and  found  she  was  right. 
My  playing  of  the  Lied  on  November  26th  was  interrupted 
by  the  arrival  of  visitors,  and  the  unfinished  air  naturally 
haunted  me.  D.  writes: — On  the  day  in  question  H.  and  I 
were  together.  I  said  to  her  that  I  could  hear  you  [Miss  X.] 
playing — a  Lied  we  both  associated  with  you — but  that  you 
never  got  beyond  a  certain  part,  which  seemed  to  be  repeated. 
H.  replied,  '  It  is  strange  you  should  say  that.  I  can't  hear 
her,  but  I  have  been  seeing  her  at  the  piano  for  some  minutes.' 
H.  corroborates  this.") 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  in  these  16  cases  there 
were  only  two  instances  (i  and  13)  in  which  D.'s 
impression  failed  to  correspond  with  the  facts.  The 
remaining  four  entries  (out  of  20  recorded  before- 
hand) relate  to  impressions  which  also  appear  to 
have  corresponded  with  the  event,  but  the  degree  of 
correspondence  is  more  difficult  to  estimate. 

In  Miss  X.'s  own  diary  there  arc  55  entries  during 
this  period,  of  which  27  were  made  before  the  event 
was  known.  Of  these  3  are  failures,  and  in  two  other 
cases  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  impression  was 
actually  telepathic,  or  whether  the  coincidence  should 
not  be  attributed  to  accident.  In  the  other  22  cases 
of  correspondence,  presumably  telepathic,  Miss  X. 
was  sometimes  the  agent,  sometimes  the  percipient 
The  impressions  relate  to  events  of  various  kinds, 
such  as  meeting  particular  persons,  receiving  letters, 
and  playing  music.  Of  the  veridical  impressions  four 
were  visual  and  one  was  a  dream.1 

No,  34, — From  M.  J.  CH.  Roux. 

The  following  record  is  taken  from  a  paper  by  M. 
Jean  Charles  Roux,  medical  student,  published  in  the 
Annales  des  Sciences  Psychiques  (vol.  iii.  pp.  202,  203). 
These  experiments  in  thought-transference  at  a  dis- 
tance were  preceded  by  a  series  of  fairly  successful 
trials  with  playing-cards  at  close  quarters,  and  by 
some  other  experiments  designed  to  test  clairvoyance. 

1  Miss  X.    kindly  submitted  her    diaries   for  inspection   to   Mrs. 
Sidgwick,  who  has  carefully  examined  them. 


EXPERIMENTS  AT  A  DISTANCE.  12$ 

Third  Series :  Experiments  at  a  distance. 

Lemaire  is  in  his  room,  I  in  mine,  with  two  rooms  inter- 
vening. At  an  hour  previously  fixed  on,  I  suggest  a  card  to 
him. 

Date.  Card  thought  of.  Card  guessed, 

(i)  Mir.  15, 1892...          4  hearts...  red,  hearts;  low  number,  five 


1 8, 

27, 


(2) 

(3) 
(4) 
(5) 

(6)  „     „ 

(7)  „     „ 

(8)  Apr.  6, 

(9)  „ 


10  hearts...  3  diamonds 

6  spades...  6  clubs 

...Kg. diamonds...  Knave  diamonds 

...ace  diamonds...  5  clubs 
(Agent  had  failed  to  concentrate  his  attention.) 

. . .Queen  spades. . .  King  spades 

4  clubs...  6  clubs 

3  clubs...  5  clubs 

2  spades...  2  spades 

Fourth  Series. 

The  account  of  the  following  six  trials  at  a  distance 
in  space  and  time,  which  are  imperfectly  recorded  in 
the  Annales,  is  taken  from  a  letter  received  from  M. 
Roux,  dated  the  ipth  December  1893  : — 

(10)  Paris,  2nd  April. — Lemaire  having  gone  out  I  drew  a  card 
from  the  pack,  the  9  Hearts,  and  tried  to  transfer  it  to  him. 
Then  I  wrote  a  note  to  the  following  effect :  "  Guess  the  card 
that  I   am  thinking  of  as  I  write  these  words,"  and  left  it  on 
the  table.    A  few  minutes  after  Lemaire  entered  and  guessed  the 
7  Hearts. 

(11)  3rd  April. — Lemaire  was  out.     I  drew  a  card  from  the 
pack,  the  ace  Hearts^  and  tried  to  transfer  it  to  him.     As  on  the 
previous  day,  I  left  a  note  on  the  table  and  went  out  immediately. 
When  I  came  back  at  midnight  I  found  a  line  from  Lemaire 
saying  he  had  guessed  the  ace  Hearts. 

The  four  other  experiments  took  place  in  a  country  town,  at 
Chateauroux.  We  lived  about  500  or  6co  yards  apart. 

(12)  1 3th  April. — In  the  morning  I  saw  Lemaire  and  said  to 
him,  "  At  2  o'clock  you  must  guess  a  card  that  I  shall  suggest 
to  you."     I  went  home,  and  at  a  quarter  to  twelve  I  drew  from 
the  pack  the  5  Hearts.     I  saw  Lemaire  again  in  the  evening. 
He  had  guessed  the  6  Hearts.     He  was  walking  in  the  street 
with  a  friend.     At  about  two  minutes  to  2  P.M.  he  looked  at  his 
watch,  remembered  the  experiment,  and  immediately  the  idea 
of  Hearts  came  to  him.     A  few  minutes  later,  when  alone,  he 
tried  to  guess  the  exact  card,  and  decided  on  the  6  Hearts. 


126  APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

(13)  1 3th  April. — I  said  to  Lemaire  that  on  the  I4th  April,  at 
9  A.M.,  he  was  to  guess  a  card.    After  going  home  on  the  I3th 
April,  at  10  P.M.  I  drew  a  card  from  the  pack— 4  Clubs.     Next 
day,  at  9  A.M.,  Lemaire  guessed  2  Clubs. 

(14)  July  1 7th. — Lemaire  was  to  guess  a  card  at  9  o'clock. 
At  10  minutes  to  9,  from  my  house,   I  tried  to  transfer  the  4 
Spades.    (I  have  forgotten  to  make  a  note  of  whether  I  merely 
thought  of  this  card  or  whether  I  drew  it  from  a  pack.)     At  9 
o'clock  Lemaire  guessed  5  Spades. 

(15)  3oth  July. — This  experiment  is  more   complicated  but 
none  the  less  interesting.       On   the   3Oth  July,   at    n    A.M., 
Lemaire  was  to  guess  a  card  which  I  had  tried  to  suggest  to 
him  on  the  26th  July.     This  card  was  the  Knave  Diamonds. 
But  he  forgot  to  do  it,  and  did  not  remember  to  guess  the  card 
till  7  P.M.  on  the  3oth  July.     Now  on  this  same  day,  the  3oth 
July,  from  6  to  6.30  P.M.  I  was  myself  engaged  in  guessing  a 
card  by  clairvoyance,  and  after  many  attempts  I  decided  on  7  or 
8  Clubs,  and  Lemaire,  guessing  the  card  at  7  P.M.,  also  decided 
upon  7  Clubs.     So  that  I  had  suggested  the  card  to  him  un- 
consciously. 

Thus,  omitting  the  last  trial  as  of  doubtful  interpre- 
tation, we  find  that  in  14  trials  the  card  was  guessed 
correctly  twice,  the  number  alone  once,  and  the  suit 
alone  nine  times,  or  three  times  the  probable  number. 

Transference  of  Visual  Impressions. 

In  the  four  cases  which  follow  the  impression  was 
of  a  well-marked  visual  character;  reaching,  indeed,  in 
the  two  last  to  the  level  of  actual  hallucination.  It 
should  be  observed  that  in  none  of  these  four  cases  is 
the  possibility  of  chance  coincidence  so  entirely  pre- 
cluded as  in  many  of  the  experiments  at  close  quarters 
already  cited.  In  the  first  of  the  cases  recorded  by 
Dr.  Gibotteau  (No.  40),  and  in  some  of  Mr.  Kirk's 
experiments  (No.  37),  the  luminous  patches  seen  by 
the  percipients  are  not  unlike  rudimentary  hallucina- 
tions of  a  sufficiently  common  type,  and  their  resem- 
blance in  these  instances  to  the  objects  actually 
looked  at  or  thought  of  by  the  agents  should  not 
therefore  be  pressed  very  far.  In  the  other  cases, 
however,  the  percipient  received  a  well-marked  im- 


EXPERIMENTS  AT  A  DISTANCE.  127 

pression  of  a  definite  object  But  here  there  is  a 
flaw  of  another  kind.  The  coincidences  may  have 
been  due,  as  indeed  Miss  Campbell  (No.  35)  is  careful 
to  suggest,  to  a  lucky  shot  on  the  part  of  the  per- 
cipient at  the  object  the  agent  would  be  likely  to 
choose.  The  very  distinct  nature  of  the  impression 
produced  in  each  case  upon  the  percipient,  as  con- 
trasted with  the  vague  images  called  up,  e.g.  in  Miss 
Campbell's  case,  by  more  or  less  conscious  conjecture, 
is,  however,  against  this  interpretation  ;  and  the  fact 
that  in  the  first  narrative  the  experiments  quoted 
were  the  culmination  of  a  successful  series  of  experi- 
ments at  close  quarters  tells  in  favour  of  a  telepathic 
explanation  for  these  also. 

No«  35-— By  Miss  CAMPBELL  and  Miss  DESPARD. 

A  scries  of  experiments  in  thought-transference  at 
close  quarters  had  been  carried  on  by  the  narrators 
at  intervals  from  November  1891  to  October  1892. 
In  sending  the  account  of  these  experiments  at  a 
distance,  Miss  Campbell  explains  that  in  the  trial  on 
October  25th,  "there  was  first  an  auditory  impression, 
as  if  some  one  had  said  the  word  '  gloves/  and  then 
the  gloves  themselves  were  visualised." 

(No.  i.)  "June  22;^,  1892. 

"  Arranged  that  R.  C.  Despard  should,  when  at  the  School  of 
Medicine  in  Handel  Street,  W.C.,  between  11.50  and  11.55,  fix 
her  attention  upon  some  object  which  C.  M.  Campbell,  at  77 
Chesterton  Road,  W.,  is  by  thought-transference  to  discover." 

PERCIPIENT'S  ACCOUNT. 

"  Owing  to  an  unexpected  delay,  instead  of  being  quietly  at 
home  at  11.50  A.M.,  I  was  waiting  for  my  train  at  Baker  Street, 
and  as  just  at  that  time  trains  were  moving  away  from  both 
platforms,  and  there  was  the  usual  bustle  going  on,  I  thought  it 
hopeless  to  try  on  my  part ;  but  just  while  I  was  thinking  this  I 
felt  a  sort  of  mental  pull-up,  which  made  me  feel  sure  that  Miss 
Despard  was  fixing  her  attention,  and  directly  after  I  felt  'my 
— compasses— no,  scalpel,'  seemed  to  see  a  flash  of  light  as  if 
on  bright  steel,  and  I  thought  of  two  scalpels,  first  with  their 


128  APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

points  together,  and  then  folding  together  into  one;  just  then 
my  train  came  up. 

"  I  write  this  down  before  having  seen  Miss  Despard,  so  am 
still  in  ignorance  whether  I  am  correct  in  my  surmise,  but  as  I 
know  what  Miss  Despard  would  probably  be  doing  at  ten 
minutes  to  twelve,  I  feel  that  that  knowledge  may  have 
suggested  the  thought  to  me — though  this  idea  did  not  occur 
to  me  until  just  this  minute,  as  I  have  written  it  down. 

"C.  M.  CAMPBELL. 

"  77  Chesterton  Road,  W." 

AGENT'S  ACCOUNT. 

"At  ten  minutes  to  twelve  I  concentrated  my  mind  on  an 
object  that  happened  to  be  in  front  of  me  at  the  time — two 
scalpels,  crossed  with  their  points  together — but  in  about  five 
minutes,  as  it  occurred  to  me  that  the  knowledge  that  I  was 
then  at  the  School  of  Medicine  might  suggest  a  similar  idea  to 
Miss  Campbell,  I  tried  to  bring  up  a  country  scene,  of  a  brook 
running  through  a  field,  with  a  patch  of  yellow  marsh  marigolds 
in  the  foreground.  This  second  idea  made  no  impression  on 
Miss  Campbell — perhaps  owing  to  the  bustle  around  her  at  the 
time. 

"R.  C    DESPARD." 

(No.  2.)  "  October  2$th,  1892. 

"At  3.30  P.M.  R.  C.  Despard  is  to  fix  her  attention  on  some 
object,  and  C.  M.  Campbell,  being  in  a  different  part  of  London, 
is  by  thought-transference  to  find  out  what  that  object  is." 

PERCIPIENT'S  ACCOUNT. 

"At  3.30  I  was  at  home  at  77  Chesterton  Road,  North  Ken- 
sington, alone  in  the  room. 

"  First  my  attention  seemed  to  flit  from  one  object  to  another 
while  nothing  definite  stood  out,  but  soon  I  saw  a  pair  of  gloves, 
which  became  more  distinct  till  they  appeared  as  a  pair  of 
baggy  tan-coloured  kid  gloves,  certainly  a  size  larger  than  worn 
by  either  R.  C.  D.  or  myself,  and  not  quite  like  any  of  ours  in 
colour.  After  this  I  saw  a  train  going  out  of  a  station  (I  had 
just  returned  from  seeing  some  one  off  at  Victoria),  almost 
immediately  obliterated  by  a  picture  of  a  bridge  over  a  small 
river,  but  I  felt  that  I  was  consciously  thinking  and  left  off  the 
experiment,  being  unable  to  clear  my  mind  sufficiently  of  out- 
side things." 

AGENT'S  ACCOUNT. 

"At  3.30  on  October  25th  I  was  at  30  Handel  Street,  Bruns- 
wick Square,  W.C.  C.  M.  C.  and  myself  had  arranged  before- 
hand to  make  an  experiment  in  thought-transference  at  that 


EXPERIMENTS  AT  A  DISTANCE.  129 

hour,  I  to  try  to  transfer  some  object  to  her  mind,  the  nature  of 
which  was  entirely  unspecified.  I  picked  up  a  pair  of  rather  old 
tan-coloured  gloves — purposely  not  taking  a  pair  of  my  own — 
and  tried  for  about  five  minutes  to  concentrate  my  attention  on 
them  and  the  wish  to  transfer  an  impression  of  them  to  C.  M.  C.'s 
mind.  After  this  I  fixed  my  attention  on  a  window,  but  felt  my 
mind  getting  tired  and  therefore  rather  disturbed  by  the  con- 
stant sound  of  omnibuses  and  waggons  passing  the  open 
window. 

"R.  C.  DESPARD. 

"  October -zyh,  1892." 

Miss  Campbell  writes  later  : — 

"  77  CHESTERTON  ROAD,  NORTH  KENSINGTON,  W., 
November  24/7*,  1892. 

"  With  regard  to  the  distant  experiments,  the  notes  sent  to 
you  were  the  only  ones  made.  In  the  first  experiment  (scalpels) 
1  wrote  my  account  before  Miss  Despard's  return,  and  when 
Miss  Despard  returned,  before  seeing  what  I  had  written  [she] 
told  me  what  she  had  thought  of,  and  almost  directly  wrote  it 
down. 

"  In  the  second  experiment  '(gloves),  I  was  just  going  to 
write  my  account  when  Miss  Despard  returned  home,  and  she 
asked  me  at  once,  'Well,  what  did  I  think  of?'  and  I  told 
her  a  pair  of  tan  gloves— then  sat  down  and  wrote  my  account, 
and,  when  she  read  it  through,  she  said,  'Yes,  you  have 
exactly  described  Miss  M.'s  gloves,  which  I  was  holding  while 
I  fixed  my  attention  on  them,'  and  then  she  wrote  her  account.'* 

The  next  account  is  taken  from  the  Annales  des 
Sciences  PsycJiiques,  vol.  iii.  pp.  114-116.  M.  Hennique, 
the  agent,  had  acted  as  agent  in  four  experiments  at 
a  distance  with  another  percipient  in  the  previous 
year  {Annales,  vol.  i.  pp.  262-265).  In  the  first  the  perci- 
pient saw  vague  lights,  and  finally  a  vase  of  flowers 
(very  clear) ;  the  agent  was  looking  at  a  lamp  covered 
by  a  transparent  shade,  with  a  vase  of  flowers 
painted  on  it.  In  the  second  the  percipient  again 
saw  vague  lights,  and  then  a  luminous  sphere ;  the 
agent  was  looking  at  the  lamp  globe  placed  on  the 
table  in  full  light.  In  the  third,  the  percipient  only 
saw  brilliant  lights,  like  stars  or  jewels ;  the  agent 
was  looking  at  the  word  Dteu,  in  big  letters.  In  the 
fourth  the  percipient,  to  his  astonishment,  saw  nothing; 

9 


130  APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

the  agent  had  willed  him  to  see  nothing.  In  each 
case  the  percipient's  impression  was  recorded  in 
writing  before  any  communication  was  received  from 
the  agent.  In  the  present  case,  it  will  be  seen,  the 
percipient  received,  not  the  impression  which  the 
agent  wished  to  transfer,  but  the  image  of  another 
object  within  the  agent's  field  of  vision,  and  which 
had  entered  his  thoughts  in  connection  with  this  very 
experiment. 

No.  36.— From  M.  LEON  HENNIQUE  and  M.  D. 

"  On  Friday,  the  8th  of  July  last,  my  friend  Hennique  and  I 
made  a  further  experiment  in  telepathy.  Hennique  was  away 
from  Paris,  and  separated  from  me  by  a  distance  of  171  kilo- 
metres. At  midnight  I  wrote  to  Hennique  the  following 
letter  :— 

11  '  PARIS,////J/  8///,  1892,  midnight. 

"'MY  DEAR  HENNIQUE,— A  friend  came  unexpectedly  to 
dinner.  At  10.30,  looking  through  the  open  window  at  the  blue 
sky  under  the  full  moon,  I  thought  all  of  a  sudden  of  the  experi- 
ment planned  by  us,  of  the  telepathic  meeting  that  we  had  fixed 
for  eleven  o'clock  this  evening,  and  my  brain  received  at  the 
same  time  the  impression  of  a  puppet.  It  seemed  to  me  that 
you  were  trying  to  show  me  a  little  cardboard  man  fitted  with 
strings  to  make  his  arms  and  legs  move. 

"  *  Reminded  by  this  impression  of  my  telepathic  duty,  I  said 
good-night  to  my  friend,  and  at  eleven  o'clock  I  waited,  with 
my  eyes  closed,  in  the  darkness  of  the  dining-room.  Nothing 
happened  till  twelve  or  fifteen  minutes  past  eleven,  when  there 
appeared  to  me  for  an  instant  a  small  black  silhouette,  a 
Chinese  shadow,  as  if  you  had  cut  out  a  little  black  figure  and 
placed  it  in  front  of  a  light  ;  for  the  round  part,  which  seemed 
to  be  its  head,  was  surrounded  by  a  bluish  halo.  It  was  mostly 
this  little  black  sphere — which  I  thought  was  a  head—that  I 
saw  ;  the  body  I  rather  deduced  than  saw.  (  D.' 

"  M.  Hennique  replied  to  me  as  follows': — 

"'  RIBEMONT  (AlSNE),  Sunday,  lothjuly  1892. 

"'MY  DEAR  FRIEND,— It  was  a  bottle  full  of  water,  sur- 
mounted by  its  cut-glass  stopper,  a  large  stopper,  very  bright, 
that  served  for  our  experiment.  But  the  most  curious  part  of 
the  affair  is  that  about  four  inches  from  the  bottle  there  was 
actually  hanging  on  the  wall  a  nigger-doll,  of  the  kind  which 
you  describe,  belonging  to  my  daughter.  Was  it  reflected  on 
the  crystal  ?  A  mystery  I  For  one  second,  but  scarcely  for  a 


EXPERIMENTS  AT  A   DISTANCE.  131 

second,  I  had  intended  to  telepathise  the  jumping-jack  to  you 
before  choosing  the  water-bottle.     It  is  certainly  very  odd  ! 

"'LEON  HENNIQUE.' 

"  M.  Hennique  added  to  this  letter  a  water-colour  drawing  of 
the  above-mentioned  '  nigger-doll.'  The  head  is  a  black  circle, 
in  which  only  the  lips  are  red ;  the  arms  and  legs  are  black  ; 
the  chest  is  white,  crossed  with  red  ;  arms,  thighs,  and  legs  are 
jointed,  and  can  be  worked  by  a  string, 

"  I  wrote  to  my  friend  to  ask  him  if,  at  10.30— that  is  to  say,  at 
the  moment  when  I  had  conceived  of  a  jumping-jack,  he  had 
not,  on  his  part,  thought  at  the  same  moment,  of  the  same 
object.  He  answered  me  : — 

"'RlBEMONT,  itfhjuly  1892. 

"  '  No ;  at  10.30  I  was  not  thinking  in  the  least  of  the  jumping- 
jack;  but,  if  I  remember  rightly,  once  or  twice  last  year  I 
wished  to  make  use  of  it.  It  was  only  at  the  moment  of 
choosing  a  simple  object  for  the  experiment  that  for  an  instant 
the  idea  of  that  little  man  came  into  my  head ;  it  was,  you  see, 
before  beginning  our  experiment.  This  puppet  was  not  four 
inches,  but  only  two  inches  away  from  the  water-bottle.  There 
is  something  very  curious  in  it,  a  physical  or  psychical  effect, 
which  I  can't  account  for.  The  more  so  that  this  doll,  in  card- 
board mounted  on  strings,  is  always  fixed  to  the  wall,  above  the 
table  from  which  I  am  sending  you  my  good  wishes.  It  must 
have  been  about  9  o'clock,  while  tidying  the  before-mentioned 
table,  that  I  had  the  idea  of  transmitting  to  you  the  image  of 
the  jumping-jack. 

"'LEON  HENNIQUE.'" 

No.  37._By  MR.  JOSEPH  KIRK  and  Miss  G. 

During  the  year  1890  and  onwards,  Mr.  Joseph 
Kirk,  of  2  Ripon  Villas,  Plumstead,  has  carried  on 
with  a  friend,  Miss  G.,  a  series  of  experiments  in 
thought-transference  at  a  distance  varying  from  400 
yards  to  about  200  miles.  Some  account  of  these 
experiments  will  be  found  in  tins  Journal  of  the  S.P.JR. 
for  February  and  July  1891  and  January  1892. 
There  are  22  x  trials  in  the  transference  of  diagrams, 
etc.,  there  recorded.  The  object  looked  at  by  Mr.  Kirk 
was  generally  a  square  or  oblong  card,  or  a  white  disc 
with  or  without  a  picture,  diagram,  or  letter  on  it 
The  object  was  always  illuminated  by  a  strong  light 

1  Excluding  two  in  which  the  distance  was  only  a  few  yards. 


132  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

Notes  of  the  experiments  were  in  every  case  made 
independently  in  writing"  by  agent  and  percipient. 
In  each  case,  with  the  exception  of  two  occasions  (on 
which  Mr.  Kirk's  notes  record  his  anticipation  of 
failure),  the  percipient  saw  luminous  appearances, 
often  taking  the  form  of  round  or  square  patches  of 
light,  in  correspondence  with  the  shape  of  the  surface 
looked  at  by  the  agent.  When  Miss  G.  was  at 
Pembroke  or  Ilfracombe  (Mr.  Kirk  remaining  at 
Plumstead)  the  correspondence  did  not  go  beyond 
this;  but  in  two  or  three  cases,  when  Miss  G.  was 
also  at  Plumstead,  at  a  distance  of  only  400  yards, 
the  percipient  appears  to  have  seen  some  details  of 
the  diagram  on  the  card,  and  in  one  instance  a  fairly 
accurate  reproduction  of  the  diagram  was  given.  Mr. 
Kirk  on  this  occasion,  5th  June  1891,  was  trying  to 
impress  three  percipients — of  whom  Miss  G.  was  one 
— and  used  three  diagrams,  viz.,  a  Maltese  cross,  a 
white  oval  plate  with  the  figure  3  on  it,  and  a  full- 
sized  drawing  of  a  man's  hand  in  black  on  white. 
Miss  G.'s  report  is  as  follows  : — 

"5/6/91.  Sat  last  night  from  11.15  to  ir-45-  After  a  few 
minute.s  wavy  clouds  appeared  [these  are  drawn  as  a  group  of 
roundish  objects],  followed  by  a  pale  bluish  light  very  bright  in 
centre.  [This  is  drawn  of  an  indefinite  oval  shape  with  roundish 
white  spot  in  centre.]  Near  the  end  of  experiment  saw  a 
larger  luminous  form,  lasting  only  a  moment  but  reappearing 
three  or  four  times  ;  it  had  lines  or  spikes  about  half  an  inch 
wide  darting  from  it  in  varied  positions." 

Appended  are  reproductions  of  Miss  G.'s  original 
drawings  of  her  impression,  which  bear,  it  will  be 
seen,  a  marked  likeness  to  a  man's  hand. 


EXPERIMENTS  AT  A  DISTANCE.  133 

It  should  be  added  that  Miss  G.  has  not  had  any 
hallucinations  of  the  kind  except  at  times  when  Mr. 
Kirk  was  experimenting ;  and  the  amount  of  corre- 
spondence between  her  visions  and  the  images  which 
Mr.  Kirk  endeavoured  to  transfer  would  certainly 
seem  beyond  what  chance  could  produce. 

No.  38.— By  MR.  KIRK  and  Miss  G. 

A  further  series  of  seven  trials  with  the  same  perci- 
pient in  April-June  1892  produced  some  interesting 
results.  Full  notes  of  the  experiments  were,  as  in  the 
previous  cases,  made  by  Mr.  Kirk  and  Miss  G.  inde- 
pendently. Mr.  Kirk  wrote  his  notes  immediately 
after  the  conclusion  of  the  experiments,  which  were 
made  late  in  the  evening,  at  a  time  previously  agreed 
upon.  Miss  G.,  who  was  in  the  dark,  and  as  a  rule  in 
bed,  wrote  her  notes  on  the  following  morning  before 
hearing  from  Mr.  Kirk.  No  diagrams  were  used  in 
this  series,  "the  object  being,"  in  Mr.  Kirk's  words, 
"  to  test  the  possibility  of  influencing  the  imagination, 
and  inducing  the  percipient  to  visualise  hallucinatory 
figures  of  persons  or  animals  thought  of  by  the 
agent."  Miss  G.  knew  only  that  diagrams  would  not 
be  used.  The  distance  between  agent  and  percipient 
was  about  400  yards. 

In  the  first  three  trials  (April  loth,  I7th,  and  24th, 
1892)  Mr.  Kirk  pictured  to  himself  some  ducks  in  a 
room,  a  witch,  and  other  figures.  On  the  I7th  Miss  G. 
saw  at  one  time  a  small  sunlike  light,  but  with  this 
exception  she  had  no  impression  at  all  on  any  of  the 
three  occasions. 

At  the  fourth  trial  (ist  May)  Miss  G.  records  the 
same  night  that  she  saw  "  a  broken  circle  U ,  then 
only  patches  of  faint  [light,  not  cloudlike,  but  flat, 
which  alternated  with  vertical  streaks  of  pale  light." 
Afterwards,  however,  she  had  another  vision,  which 
she  thus  records  on  the  following  morning  before 
meeting  Mr.  Kirk : — 


134  APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

"  Soon  after  lying  down  last  ni^ht,  I  had  a  rapid  but  most 
realistic  glimpse  of  Mr.  Kirk  leaning  against  his  dining-room 
mantelpiece  ;  the  room  seemed  brightly  lighted,  and  he  looked 
rather  bothered,  and  just  as  I  saw  him  he  appeared  to  say, 
'  Doctor,1  I  haven't  got  my  pipe.'  This  seems  very  absurd, 
the  more  so  as  I  do  not  know  whether  Mr.  Kirk  ever  smokes 
a  pipe.  I  see  him  occasionally  with  a  cigar  or  cigarette,  but 
cannot  remember  ever  seeing  him  with  a  pipe  ;  if  I  have,  it 
must  have  been  years  ago.  I  do  not  know  whether  my  eyes 
were  open  or  closed,  but  the  vividness  of  the  impression  quite 
startled  me.  This  occurred  just  after  the  expiration  of  time 
appointed  for  experiment  (10.45-11.15)." 

Mr.  Kirk  reports  in  his  account  of  the  trial,  written 
on  the  ist  May,  that  he  tried  to  transfer  an  image  of 
himself,  sitting  on  a  low  chair,  and  also  the  part  of 
the  room  facing  him  in  the  light  of  the  lamp.  But 
after  seeing  Miss  G.'s  report,  he  adds — 

"  The  fact  that  I  had  another  experiment  to  make  [*.*.,  after 
the  trial  with  Miss  G.]  enables  me  to  trace  minutely  my  actions 
before  beginning  it.  Immediately  the  time  had  expired  with 
Miss  G.,  I  got  up  and  rapidly  lit  the  gas  and  three  pieces  of 
candle,  which  I  had  ready  in  the  cardboard  box-cover,  to  illumi- 
nate the  diagram.  The  room  was  therefore  brilliantly  lighted. 
I  now  rested  with  my  right  shoulder  against  the  mantelpiece,  with 
my  face  towards  Miss  G.,  but  with  my  eyes  bent  on  the  carpet. 
In  this  position  I  thought  intensely  of  myself  and  the  whole 
room,  and  feeling  really  anxious  to  make  a  success,  for  at  least 
six  minutes.  By  this  time  my  shoulder  was  aching  very  much 
with  the  constrained  attitude  and  the  pressure  on  the  mantel- 
piece, and  I  broke  off,  using  words  (talking  to  myself)  very  similar 
to  those  given  by  Miss  G.  What  I  muttered,  as  nearly  as  I  can 
remember,  was,  *  Now^  Doctor,  I'll  get  my  pipe.'  .  .  .  Until 
within  the  last  few  weeks  I  have  not  smoked  a  pipe  for  many 
years,  and  I  do  not  think  it  probable  that  Miss  G.  has  ever  seen 
me  use  one  ;  but  it  is  an  absolute  certainty  that  she  was  not 
aware  I  had  taken  to  smoke  one  recently." 

In  the  fifth  experiment  of  the  series,  made  on 
the  pth  May,  the  impression  which  appears  to  have 
been  transferred  was  fortunately  recorded  beforehand. 
Mr.  Kirk's  report  of  that  date,  after  describing  an 
attempt  to  transfer  an  image  of  the  room,  and  of 
an  imaginary  witch,  runs  as  follows  : — 

1  A  familiar  name  given  to  Miss  G.  by  Mr,  and  Mrs.  Kirk. 


EXPERIMENTS  AT  A  DISTANCE.  135 

"Continued  to  influence  her  some  minutes  after  limit  of 
time  for  experiment  (11.30  P.M.).  During  this  time  I  was 
much  bothered  by  a  subcurrent  of  thought,  which  I  in  vain 
strove  to  cast  off.  In  the  morning,  just  before  time  to  get  up, 
I  had  a  vivid  dream  of  my  lost  dog  ('  Laddie').1  I  dreamt  he 
had  returned,  and  that  my  wife,  Miss  G.,  and  myself,  made 
much  of  him.  I  thought  of  him  all  day,  and  tried  to  suppress 
the  thought,  fearing  it  would  interfere  with  the  success  of 
experiment  ;  feel  worried  and  irritated  at  this,  being  really 
anxious  to  make  an  impression.  Do  not  expect  favourable 
result.  Written  same  night.  "  J.  K." 

Miss  G.'s  report  is  as  follows : — 

"Experiment  last  night  (9-5-92)  most  unsatisfactory.  Saw 
only  a  glow  of  light  and  once  for  a  few  seconds  a  figure  [of  a 
vase].  Some  minutes  after  11.30  (time  for  conclusion  of  experi- 
ment) it  seemed  as  if  the  door  of  my  room  were  open,  and  on 
the  landing  I  saw  a  very  large  dog,  moving  as  though  it  had 
just  come  upstairs.  I  cannot  conceive  what  suggested  this,  nor 
can  1  understand  why  I  thought  of  Laddie  during  time  of 
experiment.  I  do  not  think  we  have  mentioned  him  recently. 
My  door  was  locked  as  usual.  "  L.  G." 

The  sixth  experiment  (iSth  May  1892)  was,  in 
the  words  of  Mr.  Kirk's  contemporary  report,  "  devoted 
to  making  hypnotic  passes,  done  with  great  energy 
and  concentration  of  mind.  The  passes  were  made, 
not  only  over  Miss  G/s  [imagined]  face  and  arms, 
but  specially  over  her  hands,"  with  the  view  of 
inducing  hypnotic  sleep. 

Miss  G.  reports  that  she  "  fell  asleep  before  the 
time  arranged  had  expired.  But  it  was  only  to  awake 
again  very  soon,  through  dreaming  I  was  in  a  base- 
ment room  .  .  .  making  frantic  efforts  to  strike  a 
match,  prevented  doing  so  by  some  one  behind  clasp- 
ing my  wrists.  The  sensation  was  so  unpleasantly 
real  that  it  awoke  me."  The  time  fixed  for  the 
experiment  had  then  passed.  This  was  the  only 
occasion  in  this  series  on  which  Miss  G.  went  to  sleep 
during  an  experiment. 

1  Mr.  Kirk  explains  later  that  this  dog  had  been  lost  six  years  before. 
They  had  all  been  much  attached  to  him,  and  his  loss  was  still  an 
occasional  topic  of  conversation  and  of  dreams  by  Mr.  Kirk. 


136  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

In  the  seventh  experiment  (5th  June  1892)  Mr.  Kirk 
again  made  passes  to  send  Miss  G.  to  sleep.  Miss 
G.,  on  her  side,  saw  only  something  "  like  the  varied 
but  regular  movements  one  sees  in  turning  a  kaleido- 
scope, only  without  the  colouring ;  it  was  simply 
luminous,  and  lasted  more  or  less  distinctly  from 
15  to  20  minutes."  This  impression  may  conceivably 
have  been  due,  as  Mr.  Kirk  suggests,  to  the  regular 
movements  of  his  hands  in  making  the  hypnotic  passes. 

In  estimating  the  value  of  the  coincidences  between 
Mr.  Kirk's  thought  and  Miss  G.'s  impressions  in  the 
fourth  and  fifth  trials,  it  should  not  be  overlooked  that 
the  percipient's  impressions  were  not  vague  images, 
such  as  are  wont  to  crowd  through  our  minds  on 
the  near  approach  of  sleep,  but  clear-cut  visions, 
approximating  to  visual  hallucinations. 

No.  39. — By  MR.  KIRK  and  Miss  PRICKETT. 

Mr.  Kirk  conducted  another  short  series  of  experi- 
ments in  March  1892,  with  Miss  L.  M.  Prickett, 
the  distance  between  agent  and  percipient  being 
about  twelve  miles.  The  results  are  given  below. 
It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  percipient's  impressions  in 
this  series  seem  generally  to  have  been  deferred.  But 
in  weighing  the  amount  of  correspondence  between 
the  diagrams  and  the  percipient's  reproductions,  it 
should  be  observed  that  of  the  four  diagrams 
employed,  three  were  reproduced  with  substantial 
accuracy,  and  in  their  chronological  order ;  and 
that  even  on  the  second  and  third  evenings  the  per- 
cipient's impressions — rectilinear  figures  inscribed  in 
a  circle — bore  a  general  resemblance  to  the  diagram 
actually  selected.  It  is  perhaps  unfortunate  that 
three  out  of  the  four  diagrams  included  circles  or 
figures  akin  to  circles,  but  as  the  percipient  had  not 
seen  any  of  the  diagrams  beforehand,  this  circumstance 
does  not  in  any  way  invalidate  the  results,  though  it 
weakens  the  argument  against  chance-coincidence- 


EXPERIMENTS  AT  A  DISTANCE. 


137 


Hi!  if 

^3-d. 

<!)+->•» 
^2    >  -M 

'C  ^  ° 

M 

7:  +2  ^3  o  ^  g 

^^-S  <u^  g 

1^^§f« 

•^^_  ^^  ^>  2 

;_,    ^7       ^C    *                    p,-. 

o  =a  .a 

OT    M  43 

.2  £2 

w'Z'S 

^H      0>  *-• 

i 
2 

a^l*^ 

^-5  ^ 
•^  o  S 

<v 
M 

w 

S 

t;     0}    0*       „    60 

^•S-fg 

rt   OJ   >* 
o   f3  »—  i 
rt    0^ 

o> 

"   "rt  p^"~l  w  > 

S  °  - 

.2 

"§ 

-^      rt  o  ®  § 

-1^    -c 
^5   rt  w* 

'& 

^ 

l^l-fi  . 

|ii 

S 
PH 

7? 

^     ^  ti'bb  rj           ^> 

^•s-;s-s2  •§> 

fol3  ^ 
<«.£  rt 

CU 

•  .2  ^  S'c  s^| 

e«  °9 

o 

t^st-all 

^  o  cs  ow  o  o 

^^s 

2-S'S 

^ 

S 

P 

>    , 

sg 

si 

II 

1 

P« 

a 

1—  t 

r£" 

rt 

IP 

S 

0 

gent  did  not  experiment. 
Percipient  sat,  in  ignor- 
ance of  agent's  inten- 
tions. 

© 

-< 

§  P  fl 

riSP      ^iZ" 

<NS 

^a 

3 

^  P^     -^     .9 

oo  PH 

«p< 

o 

w 

k*1"1  O      'S  "^ 

^rH0 

sT^ 

T3 

•S'g  Jlj          qj  r§   0 

^fo 

l-ss 

0 
<sJ 

S 

ll;  tflt 

ll- 

SSo 

& 

«  |!ll 

^s* 

^2 
«S 

JO  "'OX        1                         rH                                                  <N                                              CO 

138  APPARITIONS  AND   f  HOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 


£ 

fi 


-      — 

o  •-«  ^:  g  HH  pa  ^ 
2^  2^  - 
S  §  1°^  P 

-  ' 


'2  £" 


""l-SlsS  S 

bo  ^  £ f^  ^ 

•£    O  r-n^  U3 


_j     — '     O>     O  ' —  ., 

^3ir 

bD  O    O    S3  **  ^3 
C3  -»-»  _^    cc          O 


e-a 
' 


HO 


CJ 

oo 


X  op 

X  oq 

X  06 


•« 

• 


Is 

I 


g 

w 


• 


Si 

" 


jo  -O 


EXPERIMENTS  At  A  DISTANCE.  139 

Mr.  Kirk  has  conducted  several  other  series  of 
experiments  in  the  transfer  of  diagrams  and  ideas 
and  in  the  induction  of  hypnotic  sleep  at  a  distance, 
with  Miss  G.,  Miss  Porter,  of  16  Russell  Square, 
Mr.  F.  W.  Hayes,  and  others.  In  one  case  the 
percipient  was  at  Cambridge,  a  distance  of  more 
than  fifty  miles  from  Plumstead.  The  results  in 
nearly  all  these  cases  raise  a  certain  presumption  of 
thought-transference,  though  the  presumption  is  in 
most  cases — owing  partly  to  the  conditions  of  the 
experiments — not  so  strong  as  in  the  two  series  last 
quoted.  It  is  to  be  remarked  that  the  series  of  ex- 
periments between  Plumstead  and  Cambridge  were 
perhaps  the  least  successful  of  any,  a  result  which 
may  perhaps  be  attributed  partly  to  the  distance, 
partly  to  the  fact  that  the  agent  and  percipient  were 
not  personally  acquainted. 

It  should  be  recorded  that  Mr.  Kirk  is  strongly 
of  opinion,  as  the  result  of  a  careful  analysis  of  the 
experiments  conducted  by  him,  that  telepathy,  in  these 
cases  at  any  rate,  operates  as  a  rule  subconsciously, 
and  that  we  ought  to  be  prepared  to  find  the  most 
striking  proofs  of  its  action  in  such  undesigned 
coincidences  as  are  quoted  in  Nos.  4  and  5  of  the 
second  series  with  Miss  G. 

No.  40.— From  DR.  GiBOTTEAU. 

Dr.  Gibotteau,  in  the  year  1888,  made  the  acquaint 
ance,  at  a  creche  in  connection  with  a  Paris  hospital, 
of  a  peasant  woman  named  Bertha  J.  Bertha  was  a 
good  hypnotic,  and  Dr.  Gibotteau  succeeded  on  many 
occasions  in  inducing  sleep  at  a  distance.  But  Bertha 
claimed  also  to  have  the  power  of  influencing  others 
telepathically — a  power  which  in  her  case  seems  to 
have  been  hereditary,  as  her  mother  had  a  reputa- 
tion for  sorcery.  Bertha  professed  to  be  able,  by  the 
exercise  of  her  will,  to  cause  persons  to  stumble,  or  to 
lose  their  way,  or  to  prevent  them  from  proceeding 


140  APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

in  any  given  direction.  She  gave  Dr.  Gibotteau 
several  illustrations  of  these  powers,  and  he  believes 
her  pretensions  to  be  well  founded  (Annalcs  dcs 
Sciences  Psycliiques,  vol.  ii.  pp.  253-267,  and  pp.  317- 
337).  The  following  instances  of  hallucinatory  effects 
of  a  more  ordinary  kind  are  taken  from  the  same 
paper.  In  the  last  case,  it  will  be  observed,  the 
experience  was  collective.  In  none  of  the  three  cases 
were  the  percipients  aware  of  Bertha's  intention  to 
experiment.  It  will  be  seen  that  in  the  second  case 
she  succeeded  in  producing  the  emotional  effect 
desired,  though  the  imaginary  object  by  which  she 
intended  to  inspire  terror  was  hardly  of  a  kind 
calculated  to  frighten  a  hospital  surgeon.  Dr, 
Gibotteau  writes : — 

"  I  am  a  good  sleeper,  and  I  do  not  remember  ever  waking-  of 
my  own  accord  in  the  middle  of  my  sleep.  One  night,  about  2 
or  3  o'clock,  I  was  abruptly  awoke.  With  my  eyes  still  shut  I 
thought,  '  This  is  one  of  B.'s  tricks.  What  is  she  going  to  make 
me  see?'  I  then  looked  at  the  opposite  wall;  I  saw  a  circular 
luminous  spot,  and  in  the  centre  a  brilliant  object,  about  the 
size  of  a  melon,  that  I  stared  at  for  several  seconds,  being  wide 
awake,  before  it  disappeared.  I  could  not  distinguish  any  form 
clearly,  nor  any  detail,  but  the  object  was  round,  and  parts  of  it 
appeared  to  be  less  luminous.  I  imagined  that  she  had  wished 
to  show  me  a  skull,  but  I  could  not  recognise  it ;  the  wall  was 
lighted  up  in  that  place  as  if  by  a  strong  lamp;  the  room  was 
not  completely  dark,  because  the  window  had  outside  blinds, 
and  the  curtains  were  drawn  back  ;  but  this  brilliant  object  did 
not  seem  to  give  out  any  light  beyond  the  area  of  which  it 
occupied  the  centre  on  the  wall.  That  was  all.  I  waited  a 
moment  without  seeing  anything  else,  then  I  went  fast  asleep 
again.  The  next  day  I  found  Bertha,  who  had  come  to  visit 
the  hospital,  and  I  questioned  her  cautiously.  She  had  tried  to 
show  me  first  of  all  some  dogs  round  my  bed,  then  some  men 
quarrelling,  and  finally  a  lantern.  That  was  all.  It  will  be  seen 
that  though  the  first  two  attempts  failed,  the  third  succeeded 
perfectly. 

"After  that,  Bertha  very  often  tried  to  hallucinate  me;  but  I 
have  never  either  seen  or  heard  anything. 

"  I  was  more  sensible  to  transmissions  of  a  vague  and  general 
character.  I  have  written  elsewhere  of  illusions  of  the  sense  of 
space :  I  had  a  complete  illusion  of  this  kind,  and  P.  a  very 


EXPERIMENTS   AT  A   DISTANCE.  14! 

curious  commencement  of  an  hallucination.      I   have  also  de- 
scribed the  causeless  terror  that  Bertha  could  inspire. 

"  Here  is  another  account  of  a  fright.  One  evening  I  was 
entering  my  house,  at  midnight.  On  the  landing,  as  I  was  put- 
ting my  hand  on  the  door-handle,  I  said  to  myself,  'What  a 
nuisance !  here  is  another  of  B.'s  tricks  1  She  is  going  to  make  me 
see  something  terrifying  in  the  passage  ;  it  is  very  disagreeable.' 
I  was  really  a  bit  nervous.  I  opened  the  door  suddenly,  with 
my  eyes  shut,  and  seized  a  match  ;  in  a  few  minutes  I  was  in 
bed,  and,  blowing  out  my  candle,  I  put  my  head  under  the 
bed-clothes,  like  a  child.  The  next  day  Bertha  asked  me  if  I 
had  not  seen  a  skeleton  in  the  passage  or  in  my  room,  and  been 
very  much  frightened.  It  need  hardly  be  said  that  a  skeleton 
was  the  last  thing  in  the  world  that  could  frighten  me  ;  and 
frankly,  I  think  that  I  am  not  more  of  a  coward  than  the  common 
run  of  men." 

On  another  occasion  Dr.  Gibotteau  was  in  the 
company  of  a  friend,  M.  P.  They  had  just  parted 
from  Bertha. 

"After  having  deposited  B.  near  her  home,  we  went  back  to 
the  Latin  Quarter  with  the  carriage.  On  reaching  the  Rue  de 
Vaugirard,  before  the  gate  of  the  Luxembourg,  I  felt  myself 
seized  by  a  terror  intense  as  it  was  absurd.  The  street  was 
admirably  lighted,  there  was  not  a  single  passer-by,  and  the 
Quarter  at  that  hour  (just  about  midnight)  is  perfectly  safe. 
Moreover,  this  fright  did  not  seem  to  depend  on  any  cause.  It 
was  fear  just  for  fear.  '  It  is  absurd,'  said  I,  '  I  am  frightened, 
very  much  frightened  ;  it  is  certainly  a  trick  of  B.'s.'  My 
friend  laughed  at  me,  and  almost  immediately,  '  Why,  it  is 
taking  hold  of  me  also.  I  am  trembling  with  fear.  It  is  very 
disagreeable.'  The  impression  lasted  until  we  were  in  front  of 
the  gate  of  the  Luxembourg  Palace  ;  we  got  out  of  the  carriage 
at  the  corner  of  the  Rue  Soufflot  and  the  Boulevard  Saint- 
Michel.  As  soon  as  we  set  foot  on  the  ground  :  *  Look,'  said 
P.,  '  don't  you  see  something  white  floating  in  the  air,  there, 
just  in  front  of  our  eyes  ;  it  has  gone.'  I  saw  nothing,  but  I 
felt  very  strongly  the  influence  of  13. 

"  The  next  day  I  met  her  at  the  hospital.  (  Well !  you  saw 
nothing  ? ;  I  begged  her  to  tell  me  what  we  ought  to  have 
seen.  This  was  her  answer  :  *  First,  your  driver  lost  his  way — 
oh  !  not  you,  you  felt  nothing ;  he  took  you  by  all  sorts  of 
queer  ways.'  It  is  a  fact  that  our  carriage,  from  the  Rue  de 
Babylone,  had  gone  by  a  very  complicated  way,  and  one  which, 
at  the  time,  did  not  seem  to  me  the  right  one,  but  I  should  not 
like  to  say  anything  definite  about  it.  *  After  that  you  were 
frightened.'  (Which  of  us?)  'You  at  first,  M.  P.  afterwards. 


142  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

Oh,  yes  !  afraid  of  nothing  at  all,  without  any  reason,  but  you 
were  very  frightened.  Then  you  saw  some  white  pigeons  flying 
round  you,  quite  near.*  I  had  never  heard  her  speak  of  this 
hallucination.  As  to  the  fright,  that  subject  was  familiar  to  her, 
and  she  has  frightened  me  several  times,  deliberately,  as  I  have 
related." 


143 


CHAPTER  VI. 

GENERAL  CRITICISM  OF   THE  EVIDENCE   FOR  SPON- 
TANEOUS  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

IF  the  reader  has  been  able  to  accept  my  estimate 
of  the  evidence  brought  forward  in  the  preceding 
chapters,  the  possibility  of  the  transmission  of  ideas 
and  sensations,  otherwise  than  through  the  known 
channels  of  the  senses,  must  be  held  to  be  proved  by 
the  experiments  there  recorded.  That  proof  can  be 
impugned  only  on  the  ground  that  the  precautions 
taken  against  communication  between  agent  and  per- 
cipient by  normal  means  were  insufficient.  For  if 
the  precautions  are  admitted  to  have  been  sufficient, 
there  can  be  no  question  that  the  results  were  not 
due  to  chance.  It  is  not  necessary  here  to  enter  into 
nice  calculations  of  the  probabilities.  If,  for  instance, 
the  odds  in  favour  of  some  other  cause  than  chance 
for  the  results  recorded,  on  pp.  66-69  were  to  be  ex- 
pressed in  figures,  the  total  sum  would  compete  with 
or  outstrip  the  stupendous  ciphers  employed  by  the 
astronomer  to  denote  the  distance  of  Sirius,  or  the 
weight  of  the  Sun.  But  the  kind  of  evidence  now  to 
be  considered — the  coincidence  of  some  spontaneous 
affection  of  the  percipient  with  some  event  in  the  life- 
history  of  the  person  presumed  to  be  the  agent,  as 
when  one  sees  the  apparition  of  a  friend  at  the  time 
of  his  death — is  of  inferior  cogency  in  two  ways. 
The  coincidences  are  neither  so  numerous  nor  so 
exact ;  and  the  risk  of  error  in  the  record  is  far 
greater.  On  the  one  hand,  therefore,  there  is  a 
greater  probability  that  the  percipient's  affection, 


144  APPARITIONS  AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

even  if  correctly  described,  was  unconnected  with 
the  state  of  the  person  supposed  to  be  the  agent ;  on 
the  other  hand  we  have,  in  most  cases,  less  assurance 
that  the  description  given  of  his  experience  is  in  its 
essential  features  accurate.  The  part  played  by 
coincident  hallucination  in  the  question  of  telepathy 
may  be  illustrated  from  another  branch  of  scientific 
inquiry.  For  some  years  the  "Germ  Theory"  rested 
mainly  on  observations  of  the  distribution  of  certain 
diseases,  their  periodic  character  and  their  mode 
of  propagation  and  development ;  phenomena  which, 
though  sufficiently  striking,  arc  not  in  themselves 
susceptible  of  exact  interpretation.  It  was  not  until 
the  minute  organisms,  whose  existence  had  been  so 
long  suspected,  had  been  actually  isolated  in  the 
laboratory,  and  had  been  proved  capable  of  repro- 
ducing the  disease,  that  the  connection  of  certain 
maladies  with  the  presence  of  certain  microbes  in  the 
body  became,  from  a  plausible  hypothesis,  an  accepted 
conclusion  of  Science.  So  here  it  is  important  to 
bear  in  mind  that  dreams,  visions,  and  apparitions, 
however  captivating  to  the  imagination,  do  not  form 
the  main  argument  for  believing  in  some  new  mode 
of  communication  between  human  minds.  If  all  the 
cases  of  the  kind  hitherto  recorded  could  be  shown 
one  by  one  to  be  explicable  by  more  familiar  causes, — 
though  the  result  would  indeed  be  to  add  a  remark- 
able chapter  to  the  history  of  human  error ;  though 
it  would  be  a  singular  paradox  that  so  many  intelli- 
gent witnesses  should  have  been  so  mistaken,  and 
with  such  undesigned  unanimity ;  and  that  a  whole 
class  of  alleged  phenomena  should  have  sprung  up 
without  any  substantial  basis, — the  grounds  for  the 
belief  in  telepathy  would  not  be  seriously  affected ; 
we  should  merely  have  to  modify  our  conceptions  of 
its  nature,  and  restrict  its  boundaries.  But  in  fact 
there  is  no  reason  to  anticipate  so  lame  a  conclusion. 
The  incidents,  of  which  examples  will  be  adduced  in 
the  succeeding  chapters,  though  their  value  will  be 


SPONTANEOUS   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE.     145 

differently  estimated  by  different  minds,  arc  yet  in 
their  aggregate  not  such  as  can  plausibly  be  attri- 
buted to  misrepresentation  or  chance  coincidence. 
And,  first,  it  is  important  to  note  that  the  cases  must 
be  considered  in  the  aggregate.  Separately,  no  doubt, 
each  particular  case  is  susceptible  of  more  or  less 
adequate  explanation  by  some  well-known  cause ; 
and  in  the  last  resort  it  would  be  unreasonable  to 
stake  the  credit  of  any  single  witness,  however 
eminent,  against  what  Hume  would  call  the  uniform 
experience  of  mankind.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  the 
experience  of  mankind  is  not  uniform  in  this  matter ; 
and  when  we  are  forced  by  the  mere  accumulation 
of  testimony  to  go  on  adding  one  strained  and  im- 
probable explanation  to  another,  and  to  assume  at 
last  an  epidemic  of  misrepresentation,  perhaps  even 
an  organised  conspiracy  of  falsehood,  a  point  is  at 
length  reached  in  which  the  sum  of  improbabilities 
involved  in  the  negation  of  thought-transference 
must  outweigh  the  single  improbability  of  a  new 
mode  of  mental  affection.  If  to  any  reader  that 
point  should  seem  not  yet  to  have  been  reached — 
and  the  position  could  scarcely  be  held  an  unreason- 
able one — I  would  remind  him  that  the  cases  quoted 
in  this  book  form  but  a  small  part  of  the  evidence 
so  far  accumulated  ;  and  I  would  ask  that  he  should 
reserve  his  judgment  until  he  has  studied  the  whoie  of 
the  evidence  recorded  in  Phantasms  of  the  Living,  in 
the  Proceedings  of  the  American  Society  for  Psychical 
Research,  the  scattered  cases  appearing  from  time  to 
time  in  the  pages  of  various  English  and  Continental 
periodicals  dealing  with  this  subject,  and  the  ever- 
growing  mass  of  testimony  printed  in  the  Proceedings 
and  Journal  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research  in 
this  country.1  He  will  then  perhaps  be  prepared  to 

1  Of  the  Proceedings  of  the  S.P.R.,  published  by  Kegan  Paul, 
Trench,  Trttbner,  &  Co.,  three  or  four  parts  are  published  yearly. 
The  Journal,  which  appears  monthly,  contains  a  record  df  recent  cases 
of  interest,  unaccompanied,  for  the  most  part,  by  any  critical  com- 

10 


146  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

endorse  the  verdict  of  a  shrewd  and  genial  critic  on 
the  evidence  presented  in  Phantasms  of  the  Living, 
viz.,  that  it  "  can  only  be  rejected  as  a  whole  by  one 
who  is  prepared  to  repeat  at  his  leisure  what  David 
is  reported  to  have  said  in  his  haste." l 

It  is  of  course  not  possible  with  our  present  know- 
ledge to  estimate  with  any  precision  the  probabilities 
for  the  coincidence  by  chance  of  such  a  vision  as  that 
recorded  by  Dr.  Dupr£  (No.  47),  or  such  a  dream  as 
Mr.  Hamilton's  (No.  58),  with  the  event  represented. 
Neither  the  nature  of  the  percipient's  impression  in 
these  and  similar  cases,  nor  the  event  to  which  the 
impression  corresponds,  are  sufficiently  well  defined  to 
admit  of  any  numerical  argument  being  based  upon 
them.  We  can  only  recognise  that  whilst  dreams 
and  mind's-eye  pictures  are  not  very  uncommon 
experiences,  dreams  and  visions  which  faithfully 
reflect  external  events  of  an  unlikely  kind  occur,  if 
rarely,  with  sufficient  frequency  to  give  us  pause. 
The  common  sense  which  in  such  cases  leads  us 
to  infer  a  connection  between  the  event  and  the 
corresponding  mental  experience  is  our  only  guide. 
But  one  large  class  of  our  spontaneous  evidences 
is  susceptible  of  more  exact  treatment  Sensory 
hallucinations  are  affections  at  'once  well  marked  and 
unusual.  If  we  can  ascertain  their  relative  frequency 
it  is  possible  to  calculate  with  more  or  less  exactness 
the  probabilities  of  the  coincidence  by  chance  with 
some  definite  event  Such  a  calculation  has  been 
attempted  in  Chapter  IX.  with  regard  to  hallucina- 

mentary,  and  is  privately  printed  for  circulation  amongst  members  and 
associates  of  the  Society.  Any  reader,  however,  desirous  of  studying 
the  subject  may  procure  any  number  of  the  Journal  referred  to  in  this 
book  on  application  at  the  Rooms  of  the  S.P.R.,  19  Buckingham  St., 
Adelphi,  W.C.  Of  the  foreign  periodicals  referred  to  in  the  text,  per- 
haps the  most  important  is  the  Annales  des  Sciences  Psychiques,  edited 
by  Dr.  Dariex,  and  published  by  Germer  Bailliere  et  Cie.,  Paris. 
Cases  of  interest  are  also  to  be  found  in  Sphinx,  a  German  periodical, 
to  be  obtained  through  Kegan  Paul  &  Co.;  in  the  Revue  Spirite  (Paris; 
24  Rue  des  Pet  its- Champs) ;  and  elsewhere. 
1  Professor  C.  Lloyd  Morgan  in  Mind,  1887,  p.  282. 


SPONTANEOUS  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE.     147 

tions  of  a  certain  well-defined  type  coinciding  with 
the  death  of  the  person  represented.  The  conclusion 
there  reached  is  that  such  coincidences  are  far  too 
numerous  to  be  ascribed  to  chance.  This  part  of  the 
evidence  cannot  therefore  be  summarily  dismissed, 
as  suggested  by  more  than  one  recent  critic,  on  the 
plea  that  hallucinations  which  coincide  with  a  death 
may  be  set  off  against  hallucinations  which  occur 
without  any  coincidence,  and  both  alike  be  regarded 
as  purely  subjective  and  without  significance.  Our 
own  estimate  of  the  probabilities  is,  of  course,  pro- 
visional, and  may  ultimately  prove  to  be  wide  of  the 
mark.  But,  meanwhile,  it  is  at  least  proof  against 
assault  by  conjectural  statistics  or  the  obiter  dicta  of 
amateur  psychologists. 

But  in  fact  the  criticism  commonly  made  is  not 
that,  happening  as  described,  visions  and  halluci- 
nations happened  by  chance ;  but  that  they  did  not 
happen  as  described.  This  objection  deserves  careful 
consideration.  It  must,  I  think,  be  admitted  that  a 
proportion,  perhaps  a  large  proportion,  even  of  the 
cases  obtained  at  first-hand  are  so  far  inaccurate  as  to 
have  comparatively  small  value  for  scientific  purposes  ; 
and  of  the  residue,  in  which  the  central  fact  of  an 
unusual  subjective  experience  on  the  part  of  the 
percipient  and  its  coincidence  with  some  external 
event  is  fairly  well  established,  it  is  possible  that  the 
details  are  frequently — and  where  the  record  is  not 
made  until  some  years  after  the  event,  generally — 
untrustworthy.  In  order  to  estimate  the  nature  and 
probable  extent  of  these  defects,  it  is  proposed  briefly 
to  pass  in  review  the  various  kinds  of  error  to  which 
testimony  is  liable,  and  to  note  their  bearings  on  the 
question  at  issue. 

Errors  of  Observation. 

Errors  of  observation  are  here  of  very  little  import- 
ance. The  thing  to  be  observed  is,  of  course,  the 


148  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

percipient's  own  sensations.  In  subsequent  con- 
versation he  may  exaggerate  the  exceptional  nature 
of  the  impression  ;  but  he  can  hardly  make  a  mistake 
at  the  time  in  observing  what  is  purely  subjective. 
If  a  man  calls  green  what  we  call  red,  we  may 
conclude  that  he  is  colour-blind ;  and  if  he  asserts 
that  he  sees  a  human  figure  where  we  see  none,  that 
he  is  hallucinated  ;  but  in  neither  case  have  we 
warrant  for  saying  that  he  is  making  an  erroneous 
statement  about  his  own  sensations. 

Errors  of  Inference. 

But  his  interpretation  of  what  he  sees  is  a  differ- 
ent matter.  Not  indeed  that  the  mistake  commonly 
made  of  taking  a  hallucination  at  the  time  for  a  figure 
of  flesh  and  blood,  and  subsequently  for  a  hypothetical 
entity  of  another  kind,  directly  affects  the  percipient's 
testimony.  So  long  as  the  witness  accurately  de- 
scribes what  he  saw,  it  matters  little  whether  he 
believes  in  telepathic  hallucinations,  or  in  black  magic, 
ghosts,  or  the  Himalayan  Brothers.  But  there  are 
one  or  two  errors  of  inference  of  sufficient  import- 
ance to  deserve  notice. 

A  real  figure  seen  under  exceptional  circumstances 
may  at  the  time  or  in  the  light  of  subsequent  events 
be  regarded  as  a  hallucination.  Such  a  mistake  is,  as 
a  rule,  possible  only  out  of  doors;  and  the  commonest 
form  of  it  is  when  a  figure  is  seen  by  the  percipient 
resembling  some  friend  believed  to  be  at  a  distance, 
or  in  circumstances  which  make  it  difficult  to  suppose 
that  the  figure  was  of  flesh  and  blood.  A  curious 
instance  came  under  my  notice  recently.  It  was 
reported  to  me  that  a  lady  had  seen  in  a  certain  pro- 
vincial town  the  ghost  of  a  friend  at  about  the  time 
of  her  death.  The  figure,  accompanied  by  another 
figure,  was  seen  in  broad  daylight  at  a  distance  of 
a  few  feet  only;  it  was  clearly  recognised,  and  the 
proof  of  its  non-reality  lay  in  the  complete  absence  of 


SPONTANEOUS   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE.     149 

recognition  in  return.  It  was  subsequently  ascertained 
that  the  friend  in  question  had  actually  been  present 
in  the  flesh,  with  a  companion,  at  the  spot  where  the 
figures  were  seen,  but  that  for  sufficient  reasons  she 
desired  to  avoid  recognition.  Her  death  within  a  few 
days  of  the  encounter  was  merely  an  odd  coincidence. 
Another  kind  of  erroneous  inference  is  worth  not- 
ing. Cases  are  not  infrequently  quoted,  as  presumably 
telepathic,  of  a  dream  or  vision  embodying  informa- 
tion demonstrably  not  within  the  conscious  knowledge 
of  the  percipient.  The  inference  that  he  cannot  have 
obtained  the  information  by  normal  means  is  clearly 
unsound,  unless  it  can  be  shown  that  it  was  impossible 
for  the  information  to  have  been  received  uncon- 
sciously. For  it  is  well  established  that  intelligence, 
even  of  events  closely  affecting  the  percipient,  may 
enter  through  the  external  organs  of  sense  and  lie 
latent  for  days  before  emerging  into  consciousness. 
It  is  obvious  that,  for  instance,  many  of  the  cases 
quoted  in  which  an  invalid  became  aware  of  news 
(e.g.,  of  the  death  of  a  relative)  which  had  been 
studiously  withheld  from  him  by  those  around  may 
be  thus  explained.  Whispers  heard  in  sleep,  or  hints 
unconsciously  received,  may  have  betrayed  the  secret.1 

Errors  of  Narration. 

Of  much  greater  importance  than  errors  of  observa- 
tion or  inference  are  those  due  to  defects  either  in 
narration  or  memory.  Deliberate  deception  amongst 
educated  persons  is  no  doubt  comparatively  rare, 
though  it  would  perhaps  be  unwise  to  hold  out  any 

1  See  the  case  recorded  by  Miss  X.  (Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  v.  pp.  507,  508). 
In  this  instance  Miss  X,  saw  in  the  crystal  a  notice  of  a  friend's  death 
in  the  form  of  an  extract  from  the  obituary  column  of  the  Times,  in 
which  journal  she  had  almost  certainly  seen  the  news,  without  perceiv- 
ing it,  the  day  before.  There  is  a  dream  recorded  in  Phantasms  of  the 
Living,  vol.  ii.  pp.  687,  688,  which  may  probably  be  explained  as  the 
emergence  in  dream  of  intelligence  unconsciously  received  a  few  hours 
before. 


ISO  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

pecuniary  inducement  for  the  production  of  evidence. 
But  there  are  those,  like  Colonel  Capadose  in  Mr. 
Henry  James'  story  The  Liar,  who  tell  ghost  stories 
for  art's  sake,  and  on  a  slender  basis  of  fact  build  up 
a  large  superstructure  of  fiction.  -And  there  are  many 
more  who,  with  a  natural  and  almost  pardonable 
desire  to  appear  as  the  hero,  or  at  least  the  raconteur, 
of  a  good  story,  or  from  the  mere  love  of  the  marvel- 
lous, allow  themselves  to  exaggerate  the  coincidences, 
adjust  the  dates,  elaborate  the  details,  or  otherwise 
improve  the  too  bare  facts  of  an  actual  experience. 
This  kind  of  embellishment,  however,  is  probably 
more  frequent  in  second-hand  accounts,  where  the 
narrator  speaks  with  less  sense  of  responsibility,  and, 
it  may  be  added,  of  reality. 

Again,  a  common  form  of  inaccuracy  is  to  quote  as 
the  experience  of  a  friend  one  of  those  weird  stories 
which  are  passed  on  from  mouth  to  mouth  in  ordinary 
society — the  inconvertible  currency  of  psychical  re- 
search. We  all  know  these  old  friends — at  a  distance, 
for  no  one  has  ever  succeeded  in  making  their  nearer 

acquaintance.     There  is  the  ghost  at  No.  50  B 

Square;  the  driver  of  the  dream-hearse,  recognised  a 
year  later  in  a  lift,  which  fell  straightway,  with  all  its 
passengers,  to  the  bottom  of  the  hotel ;  the  Form 
which  accompanies  the  priest,  or  Quaker,  or  godly 
merchant  to  save  him  from  robbery  on  his  lonely 
nocturnal  journeyings;  the  young  lady  who  took  part 
in  some  tableaux  vivants  whilst  her  body  was  lying" 
cold  in  death — and  all  the  rest  of  the  phantom  throng. 
Only  a  few  months  ago  I  heard  one  of  them — it  was 
the  ghost  of  the  lift — from  the  son  of  a  doctor,  who 
assured  me  that  the  incident  occurred  to  one  of  his 
father's  patients,  and  gave  me  the  name  of  the  foreign 
hotel  which  had  been  the  scene  of  the  disaster.1 

1  I  have  before  me  as  I  write  one  case  of  the  kind  which  will  serve  as 
a  sample.  A  told  us  the  story,  and  induced  B  to  write  to  us  about  it. 
B  informed  us  that  he  heard  it  from  his  brother  C,  a  F.  R.  S. ,  who  had 
received  it  from  D,  to  whom  it  was  told  by  E,  who  had  it  from  the  lips 


SPONTANEOUS   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

Sometimes  a  story  is  improved  by  the  narrator  that 
it  may  the  better  serve  for  instruction  and  edification. 
This  tendency  is  especially  liable  to  distort  the  evi- 
dence in  cases  connected  with  death.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  though  we  may  view  a  coincident 
hallucination,  for  instance,  as  merely  an  instance  of 
an  idea  transferred  from  a  living  mind,  to  the  per- 
cipient it  frequently  represents  the  spirit  of  the  dead. 
From  a  certain  class  of  witnesses  the  account  of  such 
an  incident  is  as  little  to  be  trusted  as  the  text  of  an 
apocryphal  gospel.  It  inevitably  becomes  a  Tendenz* 
schrift,  which  reflects  not  the  facts  as  they  occurred, 
but  the  narrator's  conception  of  what  the  facts  ought 
to  have  been. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  dwell  on  these  sources  of 
error,  for  they  are  probably  apparent  to  all ;  and  to 
give  illustrative  cases  would  be  superfluous,  and  per- 
haps invidious.  But  it  is  important  to  observe  that 
stories  so  improved,  whether  from  a  desire  to  reinforce 
some  theological  tenet,  or  from  the  mere  love  of 
sensation,  are  apt  to  betray  their  origin  in  many 
different  ways.  Narrators  of  this  kind  rarely  con- 
tent themselves  with  the  finer  touches  ;  the  added 
ornaments  are  apt  to  be  gross  and  palpable; 
the  "spirit"  will  be  made  to  speak  words  of  warning 
or  comfort;  to  intimate  his  testamentary  disposi- 
tions; or  even — in  somewhat  bolder  flight  of  fancy 
— to  leave  a  solid  memento  behind  him.  Now  the 
authentic  phantom  is  seldom  either  dramatic  or 
edifying.. 

of  F,  "  who  was  a  visitor  at  the  house  where  the  occurrence  took  place." 
We  wrote  to  D,  who  referred  us  to  two  sources  of  information,  G  and 
•H.  G  wrote  in  reply  to  our  letter  that  he  heard  the  story  from  a 
stranger  at  a  dinner-party  "about  three  years  ago,"  and  promised 
further  inquiries.  H  referred  us  to  J  and  K.  Our  letter  to  K  was 
answered  by  his  cousin  L,  who  wrote  that  she  had  heard  it  from  M, 
"who  got  it  from  some  one  who  was  present,"  and  further  inquiries 
were  again  promised.  It  is  needless  to  add  that  in  cases  of  this  kind 
the  story,  like  a  will-o'-the-wisp,  ever  recedes  as  we  advance,  until  it 
ends  with  the  nameless  stranger  at  some  dinner  long  since  gone  "away 
in  the  Ewigkeit." 


152  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

Errors  of  Memory. 

More  insidious  and  more  difficult  to  guard  against 
are  errors  of  memory.  There  is  a  natural  and  almost 
inevitable  tendency  to  dramatic  unity  and  complete- 
ness which  leads  to  the  unconscious  suppression  of 
some  details,  and  the  insertion  of  others.  Probably 
of  all  errors  due  to  this  cause  a  nice  adjustment  of  the 
dates  is  the  commonest.  In  perhaps  the  majority  of 
second-hand  cases,  and  in  some  of  the  more  remote 
first-hand  narratives,  the  coincidence  is  said  to  be 
exact  to  the  minute.  "At  that  very  moment  my  friend 
passed  away"  is  a  common  phrase.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  in  the  best  attested  recent  cases  it  can  rarely  be 
shown  that  the  coincidence  is  precise,  and  the  impres- 
sion frequently  follows  the  death  by  some  hours.  But 
there  is  risk  also  of  the  actual  transformation  of  the 
experience  itself.  A  dream  after  the  lapse  of  years 
will  be  recalled  as  a  hallucination,1  a  vague  feeling 
of  discomfort  as  a  vivid  emotion,  or  even  a  mental 
vision;  a  hallucination  not  recognised  at  the  moment 
will  in  the  retrospect  seem  to  have  been  identified 
with  some  person  who  died  at  about  that  time;  and 
details,  such  as  clothes  worn  or  words  spoken  by  the 
phantom,  will  be  borrowed  from  later  knowledge  and 
read  back  into  the  image  preserved  in  the  memory. 
There  will  further  be  a  gradual  simplifying  and 
rounding  off  of  the  incident,  a  deepening  of  the  main 
lines,  and  a  suppression  of  what  is  not  obviously 
relevant  or  coherent.  With  many  persons  Jthere  can 
be  no  doubt  that  this  process  is  almost,  if  not  wholly, 
unconscious;  and  it  need  hardly  be  said  that  in  that 
very  fact  lies  the  special  danger  against  which  we 
have  to  guard.2 

1  There  is,  as  Mr.  Gurney  has  pointed  out,  a  converse  error  to  be 
guarded  against — viz.,  the  gradual  effaccment  of  the  lines  of  an  impres- 
sion, so  that  an  actual  waking  hallucination  has  in  some  instances  come 
to  be  regarded,  after  a  long  interval,  as  only  a  dream. 

8  A  good  illustration  of  this  kind  of  embellishment,  in  a  case  recorded 
at  second-hand,  will  be  found  in  the  footnote  on  a  case  in  Chapter  XII, 


SPONTANEOUS  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE.     153 

As  an  instance  of  the  gradual  approximation  of 
dates,  I  may  cite  a  case  recorded  in  the  Proceedings 
of  the  American  S.P.R.  (pp.  401,  527).  The  narrator 
wrote  to  Dr.  Hodgson  : — "  I  once  dreamed  that  W.  T. 
H.  was  dead  ;  and  the  same  night  he  was  thrown 
down  several  feet  on  to  an  engine,  .  .  .  when  he  was 
taken  up  it  was  thought  he  was  dead/'  From  later 
inquiries  it  was  ascertained  that  the  accident  did 
indeed  occur  as  alleged — but  a  week  or  ten  days  after 
the  dream!1  As  an  illustration  of  a  different  kind  of 
metamorphosis,  a  case  may  be  given  which  I  recently 
received  from  a  lady  and  her  daughter — an  account 
of  a  "  ghost "  seen  twenty-five  years  ago  by  the  latter 
and  her  nurse.  The  younger  lady  described  to  me  the 
figure  seen ;  the  mother  told  me  that  she  had  received 
a  similar  description  from  both  nurse  and  daughter 
at  the  time  of  the  incident.  Both  ladies  were  clear- 
headed and  sensible  witnesses,  and  it  was  impossible 
to  doubt  that  they  believed  what  they  said.  But  in 
her  childish  diary,  which  the  younger  lady  kindly 
unearthed  for  my  inspection,  the  only  entry  referring 
to  the  matter — an  entry  written  in  pencil  and  ob- 
viously as  an  afterthought — ran  :  "  Ellen  saw  a  ghost." 
If  the  diarist  had  herself  shared  the  experience,  it  is 
difficult  to  believe  that  even  the  modesty  natural  to 
her  age  and  sex  would  have  withheld  her  from  record- 
ing the  fact  for  her  private  glorification. 

It  would  be  easy  to  multiply  cases  of  this  kind. 
But  those  who  demand  most  proof  of  the  action  of 
telepathy  will  probably  be  least  exacting  of  evidence 
for  the  untrustworthiness  of  ancient  memories.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  we  have  the  evidence  of  statistics  to 

1  So  in  a  case  given  in  the  Annales  des  Sciences  Psychiques,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  5-10,  we  have  an  extract  from  the  log-book  of  the  Jacques-Gabriel^ 
which  records  that  the  captain,  mate,  and  another  man  when  at 
sea  heard,  on  the  I7th  July  1852,  the  sound  of  a  woman's  voice  crying. 
In  a  marginal  note  on  the  log-book  the  captain  adds  that  on  reaching 
port  they  learnt  of  the  death  of  the  mate's  wife,  "  on  the  same  day  and 
at  the  same  hour"  But  the  official  register  shows  that  the  death  took 
place  on  the  i&hjune  1852. 


154  APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

show  that  the  imagination  does  tend  after  a  certain 
lapse  of  time  to  magnify  coincidences  in  matters  of 
this  kind,  and  even  to  invent  coincidences  where  none 
existed.  It  will  be  shown  in  Chapter  IX.,  in  the  dis- 
cussion on  the  results  obtained  from  an  inquiry  into 
the  distribution  of  sensory  hallucinations,  that  whereas 
non-coincidental  hallucinations  tend  to  be  forgotten 
after  the  passing  of  a  few  years,  the  records  of  coinci- 
dental hallucinations — or  at  least  of  those  which  are 
alleged  to  have  coincided  with  the  death  of  the  person 
seen — are  proportionately  more  frequent  ten  years 
ago  than  at  the  present  time,  the  inference  being  that 
a  certain  number  of  coincidences  have  been  uncon- 
sciously improved  or  invented  in  the  interval. 

Pseudo-presentiment. 

In  a  letter  published  in  Mind  (April  1888)  Pro- 
fessor Royce,  of  Harvard,  U.S.A.,  hazarded  a  hypo- 
thesis that  there  may  occur  "  instantaneous  and  irre- 
sistible hallucinations  of  memory  which  make  it  seem 
to  one  that  something  which  now  excites  or  astonishes 
him  has  been  prefigured  in  a  recent  dream,  or  in  the 
form  of  some  other  warning."  In  support  of  that 
hypothesis  Professor  Royce  appeals  to  the  analogy 
of  the  well-known  cases  of  double  memory, — the 
impression  of  having  at  some  previous  time  looked 
on  a  scene  now  present,  or  heard  a  conversation  now 
taking  place  ;  and  to  two  or  three  instances  of  un- 
doubted hallucination  of  memory  amongst  the  insane, 
recorded  by  Krafft-Ebing  and  Kraepelin.  As  re- 
gards the  latter,  it  is  sufficient  to  remark  that  the 
hallucinations  occurred  to  persons  whose  minds  were 
admittedly  diseased  ;  that  the  hallucinations  them- 
selves were  apparently  slow  of  growth,  whereas  the 
hypothesis  requires  that  they  should  be  more  or  less 
instantaneous ;  and  that  in  other  respects  they  do  not 
present  by  any  means  a  perfect  parallel  to  the  pre- 
sumably telepathic  cases  with  which  he  compares 


SPONTANEOUS   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE.     155 

them.  In  default,  therefore,  of  more  precise  analogies, 
the  hypothesis  of  pseudo-presentiment  must  be  re- 
garded as,  at  best,  a  plausible  guess.  And  even  if 
it  were  fully  substantiated  it  would  only,  as  pointed 
out  by  Mr.  Gurney  (Mind,  July  1888),  apply  to 
certain  classes  of  telepathic  cases,  and  those  the 
weakest  from  the  evidential  standpoint.  At  most 
the  theory  would  account  for  dreams  and  indefinite 
impressions  of  various  kinds  not  mentioned  before- 
hand. In  some  cases  of  this  kind,  and  in  a  large 
class  of  so-called  "  prophetic  "  dreams,  I  am  inclined 
to  regard  Mr.  Royce's  explanation  as  possibly  true, 
in  the  modified  form  suggested  by  Dr.  Hodgson  (Proc. 
American  S.P.R.,  pp.  540  et  seq.} — i.e.,  if  it  is  restricted 
to  cases  where  there  is  a  vague  memory  of  some  actual 
dream  or  other  impression,  bearing  a  more  or  less  re- 
mote resemblance  to  the  event;  in  other  words,  if 
we  assume  an  illusion  rather  than  a  hallucination  of 
memory.  But  it  need  hardly  be  said  that  no  serious 
investigator  would  treat  the  uncorroborated  accounts 
of  dreams  and  vague  feelings  of  this  kind  as  evidence 
for  anything  whatever.  To  extend  the  hypothesis, 
as  Professor  Royce  suggests,  to  cases  where  there  is 
evidence  that  the  percipient's  experience  was  men- 
tioned beforehand,  is  to  suppose  not  one  kind  of 
pseudo-memory,  but  two, — a  pseudo-memory  on  the 
part  of  the  percipient  that  he  has  had  a  certain 
subjective  experience,  and  a  pseudo-memory  on  the 
part  of  some  other  person  that  this  experience  was 
mentioned  to  him  before  the  news  of  the  event  to 
which  it  related.  In  recent  cases,  at  any  rate,  the 
assumption  of  a  double  mistake  of  this  kind  seems 
unwarranted.1  And  to  apply  this  explanation  to 

1  That  such  a  pseudo-memory  on  the  part  of  a  person  not  professing 
to  be  the  actual  percipient  is  possible  after  a  long  interval  appears  to  be 
shown  by  the  account  just  cited  of  the  "  ghost "  seen  by  the  nurse  in  a 
foreign  hotel.  But  we  have  no  evidence  that  a  memory  hallucination  of 
this  kind  could  be,  as  demanded  by  the  theory,  of  instantaneous  or  very 
rapid  growth  ;  or  that  any  verbal  suggestion  could  intercalate  a  false 
picture  into  a  series  of  still  recent  and  unimpaired  memories,. 


1 56  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

cases  of  actual  sense-hallucination  involves  even 
more  violent  improbabilities.  It  would  require  far 
more  evidence  than  Professor  Royce  can  offer  to 
make  it  credible  that  a  man  on  hearing  of  the 
death  of  a  friend  should  straightway  be  capable  of 
imagining  that  at  a  definite  hour  and  in  a  particular 
place  he  had  seen  an  apparition  of  that  friend,  when 
in  fact  he  had  had  no  experience  of  the  kind.  It  is 
remarkable  that  Mr.  Royce  does  not  himself  appear 
to  have  realised  the  distinction  between  the  two  kinds 
of  impressions. 

Precautions  against  Error. 

We  have  now  to  consider  by  what  methods  the 
various  defects  incident  to  testimony  on  these  matters 
may  be  best  eliminated.  As  the  evidence  upon  which 
reliance  is  placed  will  be  illustrated  by  the  examples 
quoted  hereafter,  it  will  not  be  necessary  to  dwell  at 
length  here  upon  the  precautions  taken.  The  testi- 
mony at  first-hand  of  the  actual  witnesses,  it  need 
hardly  be  said,  is  to  be  desired  in  any  investigation; 
but  in  the  case  of  phenomena  which  are  at  once 
stimulating  to  the  imagination,  and,  as  being  novel, 
have  no  recognised  standard  of  probability  by  which 
narrator  or  auditor  can  check  deviations  from  the 
truth,  no  other  evidence  is  worthy  of  consideration.1 
It  will  be  seen  that  in  all  the  cases  here  quoted  the 
witness,  or  one  of  the  witnesses,  has  furnished  an 
account  of  his  experience  written  by  himself;2  and  it 

1  Second-hand  narratives  have,  however,  a  value  of  their  own,  as 
shown  later;  for  by  taking  note  of  the  features  which  occur  commonly 
in  such  cases,  but  are  absent  from  the  best  attested  first-hand  narratives, 
we  obtain  a  valuable  standard  of  comparison  by  which  to  check  aber- 
rations of  memory. 

2  An  apparent  exception  to  this  statement  will  be  found  in  Nos.  45 
and  46,  Chapter  VII.,  and  elsewhere,  where  the  account  is  furnished 
not  by  the  actual  percipient,  but  by  a  person  to  whom  the  percipient 
related  his  experience  before  he  knew  of  its  correspondence  with  fact. 
The  evidence  in  such  cases,  it  should  be  pointed  out,   is  as  good  as 
first-hand;   indeed,  where,  as  in   Nos.   45  and  46,  the  actual  per- 
cipient was  illiterate  and  the  narrator  educated,  it  may  be  regarded  as 
better  than  first-hand* 


SPONTANEOUS  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE.     157 

is  worth  noting  that  the  very  act  of  writing  such  an 
account  to  serve  the  purpose  of  a  systematic  inquiry 
is  calculated  to  inspire  the  percipient  with  a  sense  of 
responsibility,  and  to  lead  him  to  weigh  his  words 
with  precision.  I  may  add  that  by  the  courtesy  of 
our  informants  we  have  in  most  cases  been  enabled 
to  question  them  orally  on  the  details  of  their 
experience.1 

But,  for  reasons  already  given,  no  case  should  be 
suffered  to  rest  upon  a  single  memory.  It  is  of  the 
highest  importance,  therefore,  to  obtain  the  corro- 
borative testimony  of  persons  who  were  cognisant  of 
the  occurrence  of  the  impression  before  the  news  of 
the  corresponding  event  When  this  is  not  to  be 
obtained,  evidence  of  some  unusual  action  on  the 
part  of  the  percipient,  such  as  the  taking  of  a  journey, 
or  the  putting  on  of  mourning,  may  be  accepted  as 
collateral  proof  of  the  reality  of  his  impression.  But, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  the  evidence  of  the  attesting 
witnesses  is  liable  to  the  same  errors  which  affect  the 
testimony  of  the  percipient;  and  the  evidence  most 
to  be  desired  is  of  a  kind  exempt  from  these  weak- 
nesses— that  of  a  letter  or  memorandum  written 
before  the  news.  In  a  large  proportion  of  the  narra- 
tives dealt  with,  it  is  asserted  that  such  a  letter  was 
written,  or  such  a  memorandum  made.  Unfortunately, 
this  alleged  documentary  evidence  is  rarely  forth- 
coming. It  is  possible  that  in  some  cases  this  state- 
ment is  merely  a  conventional  dramatic  tag, — an 
addition  made  unconsciously  and  in  perfect  good 
faith  to  round  off  the  story.2  It  cannot,  however,  I 

1  This  part  of  the  work  has  been  undertaken  in  this  country  by 
Professor  and  Mrs.  Sidgwick,  Mr.  E.  Gurney,  Mr.  F.  W.  H.  Myers, 
myself,  and  others;  in  America,  chiefly  by  Professor  Royce  and  Dr. 
Hodgson. 

8  In  the  Times  of  the  6th  January  1893  there  appeared  a  letter  from 
a  well-known  writer,  narrating  how  in  1851  he  had  received  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  sea-serpent  from  a  lady  who  had  watched  its  movements  for 
some  half-hour  in  a  small  bay  on  the  coast  of  Sutherlandshire.  So  far 
the  story  is  on  a  par  with  any  of  our  own  second-hand  ghost  stories.  But 


158  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

think,  be  regarded  as  surprising  either  that  a  letter  or 
note  was  not  written  at  the  time,  or  that,  if  written,  it 
should  not  have  been  preserved.  Sensory  halluci- 
nations— to  take  the  most  striking  instance — though 
unusual  are  not  extremely  rare  experiences  ;  most 
Educated  persons  are  perfectly  familiar  with  the  fact  of 
their  occurrence  and  regard  them  (in  most  cases  rightly) 
as  purely  subjective,  the  products  of  some  transient 
cerebral  disturbance,  as  little  worthy  of  record  as  a 
headache  or  a  bilious  attack.  Often,  probably,  the 
telepathic  hallucination  is  indistinguishable  from  the 
mass  of  purely  subjective  experiences  of  the  same  kind; 
and  even  should  it  be  recognised  at  the  time  as  excep- 
tional, the  want  of  leisure,  the  fear  of  ridicule,  even 
the  dislike  of  seeming  to  admit  to  himself  the  possi- 
bility of  his  experience  having  a  sinister  significance, 
would  probably  deter  the  percipient  from  writing  about 
it.1  It  is  much  more  likely  that  he  would  speak  of 
it  to  an  intimate  friend,  should  opportunity  occur. 
And  when  in  the  rare  conjunction  of  an  exceptional 
experience,  adequate  leisure,  and  a  sympathetic  corre- 
spondent, or  the  habit  of  writing  a  diary,  the  letter  is 
actually  written  or  the  note  made,  the  chances  which 
militate  against  its  preservation  are  many.  Few 
persons  will  take  a  general  and  impersonal  (in  other 
words,  a  scientific)  interest  in  occurrences  of  this  kind. 
Their  own  isolated  experience  may  possess  a  deep 
and  abiding  interest  for  themselves,  and,  less  certainly, 
for  their  friends ;  an  interest,  however,  which  is  quite 
compatible  with  the  treatment  of  the  attesting  record 
as  waste  paper.  But  unless  it  can  be  used  to  illustrate 
or  support  a  theory  of  a  future  life,  they  seldom  regard 

the  writer  goes  on  to  say  that  the  serpent  had  rubbed  off  some  of  its 
scales  on  the  rocks ;  that  a  few  of  these  scales,  of  the  size  and  shape  of 
scallop-shells,  were  for  some  years  in  his  own  possession,  but  that 
when  he  searched  amongst  his  curios,  in  order  to  show  these  scales  to 
Professor  Owen,  they  were  not  to  be  found.  The  humble  investigators 
of  the  S.  P.  R.  have  occasionally  found  themselves  in  the  same  position 
as  the  illustrious  anatomist. 

1  See,  for  example,  the  case  quoted  in  Chapter  X.,  No.  63. 


SPONTANEOUS  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE.     159 

a  "  ghost  story"  as  having  any  value  other  than  that 
derived  from  the  personal  environment.  It  appears, 
indeed,  to  possess  for  most  little  more  significance 
than  the  recital  of  an  extraordinary  run  of  luck  at 
cards,  or  a  fortunate  escape  from  a  railway  accident, 
between  which  it  is  commonly  sandwiched.  Again, 
few  persons  realise  the  high  value  of  contemporary 
documentary  evidence  in  matters  of  the  kind  ;  there 
are  many  who  would  probably  share  the  views  of 
a  courteous  correspondent,  who,  after  sending  me 
condensed  copies  of  some  contemporary  memoranda, 
wrote  in  answer  to  my  inquiries  : — "  I  have  not  got 
the  originals';  I  destroyed  them  immediately  I  sent 
them  (i.e.,  the  copies)  to  you,  because  I  knew  they 
would  be  more  permanently  preserved  and  re- 
corded; being  authenticated  to  Professor  Barrett  and 
you,  there  was  no  further  need  of  them."  And 
even  when  they  escape  immediate  destruction  the 
letters  may,  as  in  cases  reported  to  us,  be  "washed  out" 
or  burnt;  or  may  survive  the  perils  of  flood  and  fire 
only  to  be  mislaid,  so  that  they  cannot  be  found  without 
a  more  thorough  search  than  the  courtesy  of  our  corre- 
spondents can  induce  them  to  make.  Notwithstanding 
these  various  adverse  chances,  it  will  be  found  that 
many  of  the  narratives  which  follow  are  actually 
attested  by  contemporary  documentary  evidence. 

When  the  great  mass  of  narratives  has  been  care- 
fully examined  and  tested  in  the  light  of  the  con- 
siderations above  set  forth,  and  when  all  those  which 
are  remote  in  date,  or  for  some  other  reason  suspect, 
have  been  eliminated,  there  will  be  found  to  remain 
an  important  body  of  testimony.  And  of  this  sifted 
residue,  though  we  cannot  predicate  of  any  single 
narrative  that  it  accurately  represents  the  facts,  or 
that  the  coincidence  with  which  it  deals  was  not 
purely  casual,  yet  looking  at  the  cases  as  a  whole,  we 
may  feel  a  reasonable  assurance  that  in  their  essential 
features  the  facts  are  correctly  reported,  and  that  the 
coincidences  are  not  due  to  chance. 


160  APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

I  may  conclude  this  chapter  by  calling  attention  to 
an  argument  of  a  different  kind,  on  which  Mr.  Gurney,1 
in  reviewing  the  material  amassed  chiefly  in  this 
country,  laid  considerable  stress,  and  in  which  he  has 
been  followed  by  an  independent  observer,  Professor 
Royce,  dealing  with  narratives  received  from  corre- 
spondents in  America.2  Both  these  investigators  have 
pointed  out,  and  probably  all  who  make  an  equally 
careful  and  dispassionate  study  of  the  evidence  will 
agree  with  them,  that  the  phenomena  vouched  for  in 
the  best-attested  narratives  form  a  true  natural  group. 
They  are  manifestly  not  the  products  of  folk-lore, 
nor  of  popular  superstition,  nor  of  the  mere  love  of  the 
marvellous.  They  are  singularly  free  from  the  more 
sensational  and  bizarre  features — dramatic  gestures 
or  speech  on  the  part  of  the  phantasms,  prophetic 
warnings,  movement  of  objects,  etc. — which  are  con- 
spicuous in  second-hand  narratives.  If  these  accounts 
were  purely  fictitious,  it  would  be  difficult  to  conceive 
by  what  process,  coming  from  persons  of  widely 
separated  social  grades,  of  various  degrees  of  educa- 
tion, and  of  different  nationalities,  they  could  have 
been  moulded  to  present  such  strong  internal  re- 
semblances; resemblances  consisting  not  merely  in 
the  possession  of  many  common  features,  but  in  the 
absence  of  others  which,  by  their  frequent  occurrence 
in  admittedly  fictitious  accounts,  are  proved  to  be  the 
natural  fruits  of  the  unrestrained  imagination.  This 
undesigned  unanimity  is  strong  evidence  that  the 
restraint  operating  throughout  has  been  the  restraint 
of  fidelity  to  fact,  and  that  the  narratives  themselves 
owe  little  to  the  imagination,  and  much  to  their 
reflection  of  genuine  experience. 

1  Phantasms  of  the  Living,  vol.  i.  pp.  164-166. 
1  Proceedings  American  S.P.fi.,  pp.  350,  351. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

TRANSFERENCE  OF   IDEAS  AND   EMOTIONS. 

BEFORE  proceeding  to  give  examples  of  the  evidence 
for  spontaneous  thought-transference,  it  may  be  well 
to  repeat  something  of  what  has  been  said  in  the 
preceding  chapter.  In  the  first  place,  the  narratives 
quoted  in  this  book  are  offered  as  samples  only  of 
the  evidence  of  this  kind  actually  accumulated.  No 
single  narrative  can  afford  to  stand  alone.  Each 
contains  one  or  more  elements  of  weakness  ;  and  in 
the  last  resort  chance  coincidence,  memory-hallucina- 
tion, or  even  deliberate  deception  would  be  in  any 
single  case  a  more  probable  explanation  than  a  new 
mode  of  mental  affection.  It  is  only,  to  borrow  Mr. 
Gurney's  metaphor,  as  a  faggot,  and  not  as  a  bundle 
of  separate  sticks,  that  the  evidence  can  finally  be 
judged.  But,  in  the  second  place,  it  is  not  claimed 
that  the  evidence  reviewed  even  in  its  entirety  is  by 
itself  sufficient  to  demonstrate  the  possibility  of  the 
affection  of  one  mind  by  another  at  a  distance.  The 
main  proof  of  such  affection  is  based  on  the  experi- 
ments already  described,  to  which  the  spontaneous 
evidence  so  far  adduced  must  be  regarded  as  illus- 
trative and  in  some  degree  auxiliary. 

It  will  be  more  convenient,  as  a  matter  of  arrange- 
ment, that  the  spontaneous  experiences  first  con- 
sidered should  be  those  which  resemble  most  closely 
the  results  of  direct  experiment,  though  this  classifi- 
cation has  the  disadvantage  of  placing  in  the  forefront 

II 


162  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

cases  of  the  least  definite  and  striking  kind  ;  cases, 
that  is,  which  are  most  readily  explicable  as  due  to 
chance  coincidence.  It  is  on  all  grounds,  therefore, 
expedient  that  the  reader  should  reserve  his  final 
verdict  until  he  has  the  whole  case  before  him. 

In  the  present  chapter  there  will  be  adduced 
instances  of  the  spontaneous  transference  of  (i) 
simple  sensations ;  (2)  ideas  and  mental  pictures  ; 
(3)  emotional  states ;  (4)  impulses  tending  to  action. 
The  first  two  classes,  and  in  some  measure  the  last, 
resemble  the  results  described  in  the  first  five 
chapters  of  this  book ;  for  the  third  probably  no 
direct  experimental  parallel  can  be  offered,  for  the 
sufficient  reason  that  vivid  and  intense  emotion 
cannot  be  evoked  at  will. 

Transference  of  Simple  Sensations, 

We  will  begin  by  quoting  two  instances  of  the 
transference  of  simple  sensation.  The  first  we  owe 
to  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Ruskin.  The  percipient  was 
Mrs.  Severn,  wife  of  the  well-known  landscape 
painter. 

No.  41. — From  MRS.  ARTHUR  SEVERN. 

"  BRANTWOOD,  CONISTON, 

October  27^,  1883. 

"  I  woke  up  with  a  start,  feeling  I  had  had  a  hard  blow  on 
my  mouth,  and  with  a  distinct  sense  that  I  had  been  cut  and 
was  bleeding  under  my  upper  lip,  and  seized  my  pocket- 
handkerchief,  and  held  it  (in  a  little  pushed  lump)  to  the  part, 
as  I  sat  up  in  bed,  and  after  a  few  seconds,  when  I  removed  it, 
I  was  astonished  not  to  see  any  blood,  and  only  then  realised 
it  was  impossible  anything  could  have  struck  me  there,  as  I  lay 
fast  asleep  in  bed,  and  so  I  thought  it  was  only  a  dream  ! — but 
I  looked  at  my  watch,  and  saw  it  was  seven,  and  finding  Arthur 
(my  husband)  was  not  in  the  room,  I  concluded  (rightly)  that 
he  must  have  gone  out  on  the  lake  for  an  early  sail,  as  it  was  so 
fine. 

"  I  then  fell  asleep.  At  breakfast  (half-past  nine),  Arthur 
came  in  rather  late,  and  I  noticed  he  rather  purposely  sat 


IDEAS  AND   EMOTIONS.  163 

farther  away  from  me  than  usual,  and  every  now  and  then  put 
his  pocket-handkerchief  furtively  up  to  his  lip,  in  the  very  way 
I  had  done.  I  said,  *  Arthur,  why  are  you  doing  that  ? '  and 
added  a  little  anxiously,  *  I  know  you've  hurt  yourself !  but  I'll 
tell  you  why  afterwards.'  He  said,  '  Well,  when  I  was  sailing,  a 
sudden  squall  came,  throwing  the  tiller  suddenly  round,  and  it 
struck  me  a  bad  blow  in  the  mouth,  under  the  upper  lip,  and  it 
has  been  bleeding  a  good  deal  and  won't  stop,'  I  then  said, 
'Have  you  any  idea  what  o'clock  it  was  when  it  happened?' 
and  he  answered,  '  It  must  have  been  about  seven.' 

"  I  then  told  what  had  happened  to  me>  much  to  his  surprise, 
and  all  who  were  with  us  at  breakfast. 

"It  happened  here  about  three  years  ago  at  Brantwood, 
to  me. 

"Jo AN  R.  SEVERN." 

Mr.  Severn  wrote  to  us  on  the  isth  November 
1883,  giving  an  account  of  the  trivial  accident  de- 
scribed by  the  percipient,  and  adding  that  after  leaving 
the  boat  he 

"  walked  up  to  the  house,  anxious  of  course  to  hide  as  much  as 
possible  what  had  happened  to  my  mouth,  and  getting  another 
handkerchief  walked  into  the  breakfast-room,  and  managed  to 
say  something  about  having  been  out  early.  In  an  instant  my 
wife  said,  *  You  don't  mean  to  say  you  have  hurt  your  mouth  ? ' 
or  words  to  that  effect.  I  then  explained  what  had  happened, 
and  was  surprised  to  see  some  extra  interest  on  her  face,  and 
still  more  surprised  when  she  told  me  she  had  started  out  of 
her  sleep  thinking  she  had  received  a  blow  on  the  mouth  1  and 
that  it  was  a  few  minutes  past  seven  o'clock,  and  wondered  if 
my  accident  had  happened  at  the  same  time  ;  but  as  I  had  no 
watch  with  me  I  couldn't  tell,  though,  on  comparing  notes,  it 
certainly  looked  as  if  it  had  been  about  the  same  time. 

"ARTHUR  SEVERN." 

(Phantasms  of  the  Living,  vol.  i.  pp,  188,  189.) 

So  far  as  I  know,  this  is  a  unique  instance,  if  we 
limit  ourselves  to  first-hand  evidence,  of  the  spon- 
taneous transference  of  a  sensation  of  pain  to  a 
waking  percipient1  Impressions  of  the  kind,  indeed, 
unless  more  definite  and  intense  than  the  analogy  oif 
experiment  gives  us  warrant  for  anticipating,  would 

1  Two  other  examples  are  referred  to  in  Phantasms  t  vol.  i,  p.  189, 
but  in  neither  case  is  the  evidence  obtainable  at  first-hand. 


164  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

as  a  rule  be  quickly  forgotten,  or  would  be  naturally 
ascribed  to  some  other  source  than  telepathy.  We 
owe  the  record  of  the  present  instance  to  the  fortunate 
chance  that  the  agent  and  percipient  met  within  an 
hour  of  the  occurrence,  and  that  the  pain  of  the 
percipient,  though  slight,  was  not  such  as  could  be 
readily  attributed  to  ordinary  causes.  In  the  next 
instance,  also,  where  the  impression  belonged  to  a 
different  sense,  the  agent  and  percipient  were  in  the 
habit  of  meeting  almost  daily,  otherwise  it  seems 
possible  that  the  coincidence  would  have  escaped 
notice. 

No.  42.  —  From  Miss  X. 

The  percipient  was  Miss  X.;    the  agent  was  her 
friend  D.,  already  referred  to,  who  writes  :  — 


"April  13^,  1888. 

"  In  the  spring  of  1881,  in  the  evening  after  dinner,  I  acci- 
dentally set  fire  to  the  curtains  of  a  sitting-room,  and  put  myself 
and  several  others  into  some  danger.  The  next  morning,  on 
visiting  X.,  I  heard  from  her  that  she  had  been  disturbed  over- 
night by  an  unaccountable  smell  of  fire,  which  she  could  not 
trace,  but  which  seemed  to  follow  her  wherever  she  went.  I 
was  led  to  discover  the  fire,  and  so  probably  to  save  the  house, 
by  what  seemed  a  chance  thought  of  X.  I  had  left  the  room, 
unconscious  of  anything  wrong,  and  had  settled  to  my  work  else- 
where, when  I  suddenly  remembered  I  had  not  put  away  some 
papers  I  had  been  looking  at,  and  which  I  had  thought  might  wait 
for  daylight,  but  a  strong  feeling  that  X.  would  insist  upon 
order,  had  she  been  there,  induced  me  to  go  back,  when  I  found 
the  whole  place  in  flames." 

Miss  X.,  in  describing  the  case,  adds  :  "  I  took  con- 
siderable trouble  to  ascertain  the  cause  (of  the  smell 
of  fire),  and  was  quieted  only  by  the  assurance  that 
it  was  imperceptible  to  the  rest  of  the  household." 
(Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  vi.  p.  367.) 

When  we  leave  these  simple  modes  of  feeling,  and 
consider  the  affections  of  the  higher  senses  of  hearing 
and  sight,  we  are  confronted  with  a  new  problem. 


IDEAS  AND  EMOTIONS.  165 

Sensations  of  the  first  class  are  almost  purely  homo- 
geneous, they  owe  little  or  nothing  to  memory  and 
imagination.  Moreover,  though  generally  due  to  an 
external  cause,  they  are  in  the  case  of  smell  or  taste 
occasionally,  and  in  that  of  pain  frequently,  excited 
by  causes  within  the  organism.  It  is  not,  therefore,  a 
matter  calling  for  comment  that  in  such  cases  the 
transferred  idea  should  assume  a  definitely  sensory 
form.  But  when  the  organs  of  sight  or  hearing  are 
sensibly  affected,  past  experience  has  taught  us  to 
look  for  an  external  cause;  the  line  between  idea  and 
sensation  is  here  sharply  drawn  and  clearly  under- 
stood.1 The  line,  indeed,  as  drawn  by  common  use 
may  not  correspond  to  any  real  distinction  in  the 
nature  of  the  experience  itself.  Ideas  may  be  only 
paler  sensations,  and  a  train  of  thought  nothing  else 
than  a  series  of  suppressed  hallucinations.  But  at 
any  rate  the  distinction,  whether  fundamental  or  not, 
serves  a  useful  purpose  as  a  rough-and-ready  means 
of  classing  our  mental  experiences.  A  visual  or 
auditory  image  either  is  on  the  same  level  of  intensity 
as  the  series  of  impressions  which  represent  for  us 
the  external  world,  or  it  falls  below  that  level.  In 
the  former  case  we  call  it  a  sensation  or  percept,  in 
the  latter,  an  idea.  Sensations  and  percepts  may  be 
again  subdivided,  as  objective  or  hallucinatory,  accord- 
ing as  they  do  or  do  not  correspond  to  a  supposed 
material  cause.  In  the  experiments  described  in  the 
first  five  chapters,  it  will  have  been  observed  that 
when  the  transferred  impression  was  of  a  visual 
nature  it  generally  remained  ideal,  rising  occasionally, 
however,  as  in  some  of  the  experiments  with  hypno- 
tised percipients,  and  in  Mr.  Kirk's  cases,  to  the  level 
of  a  complete  sensory  hallucination  or  quasi-percept. 
In  the  present  chapter  it  is  proposed  to  deal  with 
auditory  and  visual  phantasms  which,  so  far  as  can 

1  Except,  of  course,  in  cases  of  rudimentary  hallucinations,  such  as 
after-images  and  bright  spots  in  the  eyes  and  singing  in  the  ears,  which, 
are  caused  by  the  physical  condition  of  the  external  organ. 


1 66  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

be  judged,  were  of  an  ideal  kind,  though  one  or  two 
of  the  cases  cited  may  seem  to  approximate  to  sensory 
embodiment  The  more  striking  hallucinatory  effects 
will  be  reserved  for  later  chapters. 

Transference  of  Ideas. 

There  is  one  kind  of  coincidence,  so  common  as  to 
have  passed  into  a  proverb,  which  is  often  referred  to 
as  illustrating  the  action  of  telepathy;  that  is,  the 
idea  of  a  person  coming  into  the  mind  shortly  before 
the  person  himself  actually  approaches.  In  most  of 
the  cases  cited  the  coincidence  is  too  indefinite  to 
call  for  attention,  as  it  is  obvious  that  the  narrator 
has  not  taken  the  elementary  precaution  of  noting 
the  "  misses  "  as  well  as  the  "  hits."  But  if  telepathy 
acts  at  all,  there  is  no  a  priori  unlikelihood  of  its 
acting  in  this  direction  as  well  as  in  others,  and  it  is 
to  be  desired  that  persons  who  believe  themselves 
susceptible  to  impressions  of  the  kind  would  keep  a 
full  record  of  their  occurrence.  Two  instances  which 
happened  in  his  own  recent  experience  are  recorded 
by  Professor  Richet  (Proceedings  S.P.R.,  vol.  v.  p.  52). 
Leaving  such  cases,  however,  as  too  indefinite  to  have 
much  evidential  value,  we  may  quote  the  following 
as  an  example  of  an  impression  of  a  more  detailed 
kind, 

No.  43. — From  Miss  X. 

On  the  I2th  October  1891,  Miss  X.  wrote  to  Mr. 
Myers  as  follows: — 

"...  I  was  much  upset  yesterday  by  the  consciousness  that 
a  Master  B.  (son  of  A.  B.)  had  arrived  unexpectedly  upon  the 
scene  ...  no  nurse — doctor  three  miles  off— husband  away. 
Being  Sunday,  I  could  not  telegraph,  but  the  news  as  to  hour 
and  sex  arrived  this  morning.  My  impression  was  at  2.30 
onwards.  He  arrived  at  3.30,  and  in  the  interval  I  heard  her 
voice  over  and  over  again  calling  my  name.  All  is  well  now, 
but  these  impressions  are  not  always  comfortable." 


IDEAS  AND   EMOTIONS.  167 

In  a  later  letter  Miss  X.  writes: — 

"A.'s  own  account  is  that  (about  two,  I  think),  when  she  was 
made  aware  of  her  danger,  the  thought  passed  through  her 
mind  how  fortunate  it  was  that  the  impossibility  of  telegraphing 
would  prevent  anxiety  at  home,  and  then — that  any  way  / 
should  know.  No  one  expected  to  have  any  cause  for  anxiety 
for  at  least  a  week.  Yes  ;  I  ought  to  have  sent  to  Mrs. 
Sidgwick,  but  I  was  so  wretchedly  ill  that — don't  shudder — I 
never  at  the  time  even  thought  of  the  S.P.R.  I  had  been 
dreadfully  worried  all  that  week,  and  was  utterly  worn  out." 

The  coincidence  is,  no  doubt,  not  of  the  strongest 
kind.  But  in  estimating  its  value  it  should  not  be 
overlooked  that  the  impression  was  sufficiently  intense 
to  produce  a  decided  feeling  of  discomfort.  And 
though  Miss  X.  unfortunately  omitted  to  send  an 
account  of  her  experience  until  after  she  had  learnt 
of  its  partial  correspondence  with  the  event,  she  did 
not  know  at  the  time  when  the  first  letter  was  written 
that  her  impression  was  correct  as  regards  the  details 
of  the  absence  of  husband  and  nurse.  Whatever  the 
value  of  the  coincidence,  therefore,  it  seems  clear  that 
the  account  owes  nothing  to  exaggeration  or  uncon- 
scious reading  back  of  details.  With  this  may  be 
compared  a  narrative  sent  to  me  in  December  1891, 
by  the  Rev.  A.  Sloman,  Master  of  Birkenhead  School. 
On  the  1 2th  of  the  month,  whilst  Mrs.  Sloman  was 
absent  at  a  concert,  a  chimney  in  the  school-house 
had  caught  fire,  and  Mr.  Sloman  had  been  summoned 
from  his  work  to  give  directions  for  dealing  with  the 
mischief.  On  the  matter  being  mentioned  to  Mrs. 
Sloman  on  her  return,  she  at  once  explained  that 
during  the  concert,  just  about  the  actual  time  of  the 
fire,  u  I  suddenly  began  to  think  what  you  would  do  if 
the  house  took  fire,  and  I  distinctly  pictured  you  going 
into  the  kitchen  and  speaking  about  a  wet  blanket" 
The  account  was  written  down  and  signed  by  both 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Sloman  on  the  day  of  the  occurrence, 
and  the  coincidence  in  time  between  event  and 
impression  seems  to  be  well  established.  It  must 


168  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

be  admitted  that  the  apprehension  of  fire  may  not 
improbably  have  a  more  or  less  permanent  pl^ce 
in  the/ background  of  a  housewife's  consciousness; 
still,  even  a  slight  outbreak  of  fire  is  not  in  an 
ordinary  household  a  matter  of  common  occurrence. 
7'he  next  case  is  interesting  as  presenting  evidence 
of  the  transference  of  an  auditory  impression.  The 
Account  was  originally  published  in  the  Spectator  of 
June  24th,  1882: — 

No.  44. — From  MRS.  BARBER. 

"FERNDENE,  ABBEYDALE,  near  SHEFFIELD, 

June  22nd,  1882. 

"  I  had  one  day  been  spending  the  morning-  in  shopping,  and 
returned  by  train  just  in  time  to  sit  down  with  my  children  to 
our  early  family  dinner.  My  youngest  child — a  sensitive,  quick- 
witted little  maiden  of  two  years  and  six  weeks  old — was  one  of 
the  circle.  Dinner  had  just  commenced,  when  I  suddenly  recol- 
lected an  incident  in  my  morning's  experience  which  I  had 
intended  to  tell  her,  and  I  looked  at  the  child  with  the  full 
intention  of  saying,  *  Mother  saw  a  big  black  dog  in  a  shop, 
with  curly  hair/  catching  her  eyes  in  mine,  as  I  paused  an 
instant  before  speaking.  Just  then  something  called  off  my 
attention,  and  the  sentence  was  not  uttered.  What  was  my 
amazement,  about  two  minutes  afterwards,  to  hear  my  little 
lady  announce,  *  Mother  saw  a  big  dog  in  a  shop.'  I  gasped. 
'Yes,  I  did  1 '  I  answered;  'but  how  did  you  know?'  'With 
funny  hair,'  she  added,  quite  calmly,  and  ignoring  my  question. 
'What  colour  was  it,  Evelyn?'  said  one  of  her  elder  brothers; 
*  was  it  black  ? >  She  said,  c  Yes.' " 

I  called  on  Mrs.  Barber  in  the  spring  of  1886,  and 
heard  full  details  of  the  incident  from  herself  and  Mr. 
Barber,  who,  though  not  himself  present  at  the  time, 
was  conversant  with  the  facts.  The  incident  took 
place  on  January  6th,  1882,  and  Mrs.  Barber  allowed 
me  to  see  the  note-book  in  which  the  account  (sub- 
stantially reproduced  in  the  Spectator]  was  written 
down  on  January  nth.  Of  course  there  is  always 
the  possibility  in  a  case  of  this  kind  that  the  lips  may 
have  unconsciously  begun  to  form  the  words,  but  in 
the  present  instance  it  seems  unlikely  that  any  indica- 
tion of  the  kind  would  have  escaped  the  notice  of  the 


IDEAS  AND*  EMOTIONS.  169 

others  present  at  the  table.  Mrs.  Barber  has  given  us 
other  accounts,  extracted  from  her  journal,  of  thought- 
transference,  in  which  the  same  percipient  was  con- 
cerned. She  writes  on  December  26th,  1886: — 

"On   Wednesday  J.  went  to   London,  and  on  getting  his 

breakfast  at  a  little  inn  in  C ,  he  found  a  'blackclock'  (i.e., 

cockroach)  floating  in  his  coffee.  He  fished  it  out  and  supposed 
it  was  all  right,  but  on  pursuing  the  coffee  he  got  one  in  his 
mouth !  Next  day,  at  breakfast,  he  said,  '  What's  the  most 
horrible  thing  that  could  happen  to  any  one  at  breakfast?  I 
don't  mean  getting  killed,  or  anything  of  that  sort.'  E.  looked 
at  him  for  a  moment  and  said,  '  To  have  a  blackclock  in  your 
coffee  1 ' 

"  She  was  asleep  in  bed  when  her  father  returned  the  night 
before,  and  they  met  at  the  breakfast-table  for  the  first  time  the 
next  morning,  when  the  question  was  asked  cjuite  suddenly. 
When  asked  how  she  came  to  think  of  it,  she  said,  *  I  looked  at 
the  bacon-dish,  and  thought  a  blackclock  in  the  bacon, — no,  he 
would  see  that — it  must  have  been  in  the  coffee.' 

"  She  has  a  special  horror  of  'blackclocks,'  so  the  incident  may 
merely  have  been  one  of  the  numerous  instances  of  her  unusually 
quick  wit. 

"CAROLINE  BARBER," 

Transference  of  Mental  Pictures. 

The  next  three  narratives  are  interesting  as  illus- 
trating three  different  stages  in  the  externalisation 
of  visual  impressions.  In  the  first  case,  which  is 
quoted  from  the  Proceedings  of  the  American  S.P.R. 
(pp.  444, 445),  the  impression  seems  to  have  been 
almost  of  the  nature  of  an  illusion — />.,  the  idea 
emerged  into  consciousness  only  when  a  somewhat 
similar  image  was  presented  to  the  external  organ 
of  vision.1 

1  See  case  No.  51,  later;  and  compare  Mr.  Galton's  observations 
in  his  lecture  at  the  Royal  Institution  on  "  The  Just  Perceptible  Differ- 
ence "  (reported  in  the  Times,  January  3oth,  1893).  Mr.  Gallon 
found  that  the  ideal  auditory  impressions  called  up  by  reading  the 
printed  substance  of  a  lecture  enabled  him  to  hear  the  lecturer's  voice 
at  a  greater  distance  than  when  he  had  not  the  printed  text  before 
him;  the  ideal  appears  to  have  supplemented  the  real  impression,  as, 
in  the  case  given  in  the  text,  the  real  reinforced  the  ideal* 


170  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE, 

No.  45.— From  MR.  HAYNES. 
In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Hodgson,  Mr.  Haynes  writes  : — 

"BOSTON,  June  25,  1887. 

"  The  name  of  the  prisoner  alluded  to  has  passed  from  my 
recollection.  He  belonged  in  East  Boston,  and  was  sentenced 
for  life  for  an  assault  upon  a  woman.  I  think  he  was  pardoned 
some  years  ago,  but  am  not  certain  about  it.  He  had  but  one 
child,  a  boy  about  five  years  old,  who  always  came  with  his  wife 
to  visit  him.  He  seemed  very  fond  of  the  child,  always  held  him 
in  his  arms  during  the  visit,  and  showed  a  good  deal  of  feeling 
at  parting. 

"The  following  is  an  account  of  the  affair  made  at  the 
time : — 

"  'The  following  very  singular  incident  I  can  vouch  for  as 
having  actually  occurred.  I  refer  to  it,  not  to  illustrate  a  super- 
natural or  any  other  unusual  agency,  as  I  am  a  sceptic  in  such 
matters,  but  as  a  remarkable  instance  of  hallucination  or  pre- 
sentiment. 

" '  I  received  a  message  from  the  wife  of  one  of  our  convicts,  in 
prison  for  life,  that  their  only  child,  a  bright  little  boy  five  years 
old,  was  dead,  he  having  accidentally  fallen  into  the  water  and 
been  drowned.  I  was  requested  to  communicate  to  the  father 
the  death  of  the  child,  but  not  the  cause,  as  the  wife  preferred 
to  tell  him  herself  when  she  should  visit  him  a  week  or  two 
later. 

"  *  I  sent  for  him  to  the  guard-room,  and  after  a  few  questions 
in  regard  to  himself,  I  said  I  had  some  sad  news  for  him.  He 
quickly  replied,  "  I  know  what  it  is,  Mr.  Warden  ;  my  boy  is 
dead  1 "  *<  How  did  you  hear  of  it  ?"  I  asked.  "  Oh,  I  knew 
it  was  so ;  he  was  drowned,  was  he  not,  Mr.  Warden  ? " 
"  But  who  informed  you  of  it  ? "  I  again  asked.  "  No  one," 
he  replied.  "How,  then,  did  you  know  he  was  dead,  and 
what  makes  you  think  he  was  drowned?"  "Last  Sunday," 
he  said,  "  your  little  boy  was  in  the  chapel ;  he  fell  asleep, 
and  you  took  him  up  and  held  him.  As  I  looked  up  and 
caught  sight  of  him  lying  in  your  arms,  instantly  the  thought 
occurred  to  me  that  my  boy  was  dead — drowned.  In  vain  I 
tried  to  banish  it  from  my  mind,  to  think  of  something  else, 
but  could  not ;  the  tears  came  into  my  eyes,  and  it  has  been 
ringing  in  my  ears  ever  since ;  and  when  you  sent  for  me,  my 
heart  sunk  within  me,  for  I  felt  sure  my  fears  were  to  be  con- 
firmed." 

"  *  What  made  it  more  remarkable  was  the  fact  that  the  child 
was  missed  during  the  forenoon  of  that  Sunday,  but  the  body 
was  not  found  for  some  days  after.' 


IDEAS   AND -EMOTIONS,  171 

"The  foregoing  is  copied  from  my  journal,  the  entry  made  on 
the  day  of  the  interview,  and  I  can  assure  you  is  strictly  correct 
in  every  particular. 

"  GIDEON  HAYNES." 

In  answer  to  inquiries  as  to  the  name  and  address 
of  the  percipient,  Mr.  Haynes  writes  : — 

"  His  name  was  Timothy  Cronan.  He  was  pardoned  in  1873 
or  1874.  Mr.  Darling,  the  officer  in  the  guard-room  to-day, 
occupied  the  same  position  when  I  had  the  interview  with 
Cronan.  He  was  present,  and  remembers  distinctly  all  the 
circumstances  of  the  case,  which  were  discussed  by  us  at  the 
time.  Cronan  served  some  ten  or  twelve  years.  .  .  .  He  has 
not  been  heard  from  at  the  prison  since  his  discharge." 

In  this  case  it  may  perhaps  be  inferred,  from  the 
circumstances  of  its  occurrence,  that  the  impression 
was  of  a  rudimentary  visual  character. 

In  the  next  case  it  seems  clear  that  the  percipient 
saw  what  she  described,  but  the  impression  appears 
to  have  been  of  a  purely  inward  nature. 

No.  46. — From  PROFESSOR  RlCHET. 

"  On  Monday,  July  2nd,  1888,  after  having  passed  all  the  clay 
in  my  laboratory,  I  hypnotised  Le*onie  at  8  P.M.,  and  while  she 
tried  to  make  out  a  diagram  concealed  in  an  envelope  I  said  to 
her  quite  suddenly :  *  What  has  happened  to  M.  Langlois  ? ' 
Leonie  knows  M.  Langlois  from  having  seen  him  two  or  three 
times  some  time  ago  in  my  physiological  laboratory,  where  he 
acts  as  my  assistant.  '  He  has  burnt  himself/  Leonie  replied. 
1  Good/  I  said,  '  and  where  has  he  burnt  himself? *  *  On  the 

left  hand.  It  is  not  fire:  it  is I  don't  know  its  name.  Why 

does  he  not  take  care  when  he  pours  it  out?'  'Of  what 
colour,*  I  asked,  'is  the  stuff  which  he  pours  out?1  'It  is 
not  red,  it  is  brown  ;  he  has  hurt  himself  very  much— the  skin 
puffed  up  directly.* 

"  Now,  this  description  is  admirably  exact.  At  4  P.M.  that  day 
M.  Langlois  had  wished  to  pour  some  bromine  into  a  bottle. 
He  had  done  this  clumsily,  so  that  some  of  the  bromine  flowed 
on  to  his  left  hand,  which  held  the  funnel,  and  at  once  burnt 
him  severely.  Although  he  at  once  put  his  hand  into  water, 
wherever  the  bromine  had  touched  it  a  blister  was  formed  in  a 
few  seconds — a  blister  which  one  could  not  better  describe  than 
by  saying,  '  the  skin  puffed  up.*  I  need  not  say  that  Ldonie 
had  not  left  my  house,  nor  seen  any  one  from  my  laboratory. 


172  APPARITIONS  AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

Of  this  I  am  absolutely  certain^  and  I  am  certain  that  I  had  not 
mentioned  the  incident  of  the  burn  to  any  one.  Moreover,  this 
was  the  first  time  for  nearly  a  year  that  M.  Langlois  had 
handled  bromine,  and  when  Ldonie  saw  him  six  months  before 
at  the  laboratory  he  was  engaged  in  experiments  of  quite 
another  kind."  (Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  vi.  pp.  69,  70.) 

In  the  next  case  the  mental  picture  seems  to  have 
been  much  more  vivid  than  the  visions  of  distant 
familiar  scenes,  or  faces,  which  most  of  us  can  sum- 
mon up  by  an  effort  of  will ;  in  fact,  the  impression 
probably  approached  very  nearly  to  a  hallucination. 
It  is  noteworthy,  however,  that  it  did  not  apparently 
form  part  of  the  external  order,  but  replaced  it.  We 
have  no  means  therefore  of  measuring  the  degree  of 
vividness. 

No.  47.— From  DR.  G.  DUPRE. 

"  REIMS,  July  6//&,  1891. 

"One  day  in  May  1890,  I  had  just  been  visiting  a  patient, 
and  was  coming  downstairs,  when  suddenly  I  had  the  impres- 
sion that  my  little  girl  of  four  years  old  had  fallen  down  the 
stone  stairs  of  my  house,  and  hurt  herself. 

"  Then  gradually  after  the  first  impression,  as  though  a  curtain 
which  hid  the  sight  from  me  were  slowly  drawn  back,  I  saw  my 
child  lying  at  the  foot  of  the  stairs,  with  her  chin  bleeding,  but 
I  had  no  impression  of  hearing  her  cries. 

"  The  vision  was  blotted  out  suddenly,  but  the  memory  of  it 
remained  with  me.  I  took  note  of  the  hour — 10.30  A.M.— and 
continued  my  professional  rounds. 

"  When  I  got  home  I  much  astonished  my  family  by  giving 
a  description  of  the  accident,  and  naming  the  hour  when  it 
occurred. 

"  The  circumstance  made  a  great  impression  on  me,  and  my 
memory  of  it  is  quite  clear. 

"Dr.  G,  DUPRE." 

In  a  further  letter  Dr.  Dupr£  adds  : — 

"  REIMS,  August  ind,  1891. 

"The  account  which  I  have> given  you  is  exact  in  every  point. 
Madame  Dupre*  remembers  it  perfectly.  As  I  had  a  great 
many  visits  to  pay  that  day  I  did  not  return  home  at  once,  but 
continued  my  rounds.  I  took  particular  note  of  the  time,  how- 
ever, and  it  was  found  to  be  exact. 


IDEAS   AND   EMOTIONS. 

"  This  phenomenon  of  perception  seemed  to  me  so  curious 
that  I  noted  all  the  particulars,  in  order  to  analyse  them  at  my 
leisure. 

"  When  I  got  home  my  first  words  were  these,  addressed  to 
my  wife,  '  Loulou  is  hurt.  Is  it  serious?'  Madame  Dupre* 
exclaimed,  *  Who  told  you  ? '  'No  one,'  I  replied ;  '  I  saw  her 
fall,'  and  then  while  examining  my  little  girl  I  told  my  wife 
about  the  vision. 

"  I  did  not  relate  the  circumstance  to  any  one  else  but  my 
father-in-law,  Dr.  Bracon,  and  he  did  not  take  it  very  seriously. 
Indeed,  I  was  not  inclined  to  lay  much  stress  upon  the  matter 
either,  as  I  did  not  wish  to  be  considered  visionary  or  credulous." 

Madame  Dupr£  writes : — 

"  2$th  September  1891. 

"  My  husband's  account  of  his  telepathic  experience  is  per- 
fectly correct.  For  my  own  part  I  was  extremely  surprised  at 
the  circumstances,  for  till  then  my  attitude  towards  all  questions 
of  clairvoyance  had  been  one  of  almost  complete  incredulity. 
Let  me  add,  however,  that  my  husband  is  of  an  excessively 
nervous  temperament,  and  was  liable  to  somnambulism  in  his 
youth.  It  is  seldom  that  a  night  passes  in  which  he  does  not 
talk  in  his  sleep.  It  would  be  quite  possible  to  hold  a  conversa- 
tion with  him  for  a  few  minutes  whilst  he  is  in  this  condition." 
(Annales  des  Sciences  Psychiques,  vol.  i.  pp.  324,  325.) 

It  seems  permissible  to  conjecture  that  in  this  case 
Madame  Dupr6,  as  in  the  previous  case  Professor 
Richet,  was  the  agent. 

Transference  of  Emotion. 

Sometimes  the  telepathic  impulse  appears  to  ex- 
press itself  in  a  vague  feeling  of  alarm  or  distress.  Of 
course,  impressions  of  this  sort,  with  no  definite  con- 
tent, and  not  recognised  at  the  time  as  having 
reference  to  any  particular  person,  can  do  little  to 
strengthen  the  proof  of  telepathy.  But  when  it  has 
been  shown,  by  the  mention  of  the  experience  before- 
hand, or  by  any  unusual  action  consequent  on  its 
occurrence,  that  the  emotion  was  unique  in  the  history 
of  the  percipient,  and  when  the  coincidence  with  a 
serious  crisis  is  clearly  established,  the  telepathic 


1/4  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

explanation  may  be  admitted  as  at  least  plausible. 
These  conditions  appeared  to  be  fulfilled  in  the  follow- 
ing case,  which  is  quoted  from  the  Proceedings  of 
the  American  S.P.R.  (pp.  474>  475)- 

No.  48.— From  MR.  F.  H.  KREBS. 

The  percipient  in  this  case  described  his  experience 
to  Professor  William  James,  of  Harvard,  who  writes 
as  follows  : — 

"  Mr.  Krebs  (special  student)  stopped  after  the  logic  lesson  of 
Friday,  November  26,  and  told  me  the  facts  related  in  his 
narrative. 

"  I  advised  him  to  put  them  on  paper,  which  he  has  thus 
done. 

"  His  father  is  said  by  him  to  be  too  much  injured  to  do  any 
writing  at  present. 

5      r  "WM.  JAMES. 

"December^  1886." 

From  MR.  F.  H.  KREBS. 

"On  the  afternoon  of  Wednesday,  November  24,  I  was 
very  uneasy,  could  not  sit  still,  and  wandered  about  the  whole 
afternoon  with  little  purpose.  This  uneasiness  was  unaccount- 
able ;  but  instead  of  wearing  away  it  increased,  and  after  return- 
ing to  my  room  at  about  6.45  it  turned  into  positive  fear,  I 
fancied  that  there  was  some  one  continually  behind  me,  and, 
although  I  turned  my  chair  around  several  times,  this  feeling 
remained.  At  last  I  got  up  and  went  into  my  bedroom,  looked 
under  the  bed  and  into  the  closet;  finding  nothing,  I  came  back 
into  the  room  and  looked  behind  the  curtains.  Satisfied  that 
there  was  nothing  present  to  account  for  my  fancy,  I  sat  down 
again,  when  instantly  the  peculiar  sensation  recurred ;  and  at 
last,  finding  it  unbearable,  I  went  down  to  a  friend's  room,  where 
I  remained  the  rest  of  the  evening.  To  him  I  expressed  my 
belief  that  this  sensation  was  a  warning  sent  to  show  me  that 
some  one  of  my  family  had  been  injured  or  killed. 

"While  'jn  his  room  the  peculiar  sensation  ceased,  and, 
despite  my  nervousness,  I  was  in  no  unusual  state  of  mind  ; 
but  on  returning  to  my  room  to  go  to  bed  it  returned  with 
renewed  force.  On  the  next  day  (the  25th),  on  coming  to  my 
grandfather's,  I  found  out  that  the  day  before  (the  24th),  at  a 
little  past  12,  my  father  had  jumped  from  a  moving  train 
and  been  severely  injured.  While  I  do  not  think  that  this  warn- 
ing was  direct  enough  to  convince  sceptics  that  I  was  warned 


IDEAS  AND   EMOTIONS. 

of  my  father's  mishap,  I  certainly  consider  that  it  is  curious 
enough  to  demand  attention.  I  have  never  before  had  the 
same  peculiar  sensation  that  there  was  some  being  besides 
myself  in  an  apparently  empty  room,  nor  have  I  ever  before 
been  so  frightened  and  startled  at  absolutely  nothing. 

"  On  questioning  my  father,  he  said  that  before  the  accident 
he  was  not  thinking  of  me,  but  that  at  the  very  moment  that  it 
happened  his  whole  family  seemed  to  be  before  him,  and  he 
saw  them  as  distinctly  as  if  there. 

"  F.  H.  KREBS,  JUN. 

"November  29,  1886." 

From  MR.  CHAUNCEY  SMITH,  JUN. 

"  I,  the  undersigned,  distinctly  remember  that  F.  H.  Krebs, 
Jun.,  came  into  my  room  November  24  and  complained  of  being 
very  nervous.  I  cannot  remember  exactly  what  he  said,  as  I 
was  studying  at  the  time,  and  did  not  pay  much  attention  to  his 
talk. 

"  On  the  25th  he  came  into  my  room  in  the  evening,  and 
made  a  statement  that  his  state  the  evening  before  was  the  con- 
sequence of  an  accident  that  happened  to  his  father,  and  that 
he  had  the  night  before  told  me  that  he  had  received  a  warning 
of  some  accident  to  some  one  dear  to  him.  This  I  did  not 
contradict,  because  I  consider  that  it  is  extremely  probable  that 
he  said  it,  and  that  I  did  not,  through  inattention,  notice  it. 

"  CHAUNCEY  SMITH,  JUN." 

The  present  case  well  illustrates  the  difficulties 
attendant  on  any  efforts  to  procure  reliable  con- 
temporary evidence  for  psychical  events.  Even  when, 
as  here,  the  percipient  himself  took  the  right  course, 
from  the  standpoint  of  psychical  research,  his  fore- 
thought was  to  a  great  extent  frustrated  by  the  short- 
comings of  his  friend. 

With  this  narrative  may  be  compared  three  cases 
given  in  Phantasms  of  the  Living  (vol.  i.  pp.  280  et 
seq^)  of  the  occurrence  of  exceptional  distress  to  one 
twin  at  the  time  of  the  death  of  the  other.  Mr. 
Leveson  Gower  has  sent  us  an  account  of  a  similar 
marked  fit  of  depression,  accompanied  by  "  a  vivid 
sense  of  the  presence  of  death,"  which  coincided  with 
the  quite  sudden  and  unlooked-for  death  of  a  near  rela- 
tion, the  late  Lady  Marion  Alford.  (Journal  S.P.R., 
May  1888.)  Professor  Tamburini  records  an  analogous 


APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

case.  A  lunatic  died  in  the  asylum  at  Reggio  on  the 
2ist  May  1892.  A  letter  of  inquiry,  dated  the  22nd 
May,  was  received  at  the  asylum  from  the  husband, 
who  had  not  previously  written  for  more  than  a  year; 
and  it  was  ascertained  that  he  was  prompted  to  write 
the  letter  by  a  feeling  of  "  great  discomfort,  as  though 
some  misfortune  were  about  to  befall  him/1  experi- 
enced on  the  previous  day,  the  day  of  the  death. 

No.  49.— From  Dr  N.,  of  New  York  State. 

The  next  case  is  specially  interesting,  because  the 
emotion  which  was  felt  in  the  first  instance  was  suc- 
ceeded by  a  visual  impression  of  a  detailed  kind. 
This  case  again  comes  to  us  from  America  (Proc.  Am. 
S.P.R.,  pp.  397-400).  Dr.  N.,  the  percipient,  writes 
to  Professor  Royce  as  follows: — 

[Postmarked  Aug.  16,  1886,] 

"In  the  convalescence  from  a  malarial  fever  during  which 
great  hyperaesthesia  of  brain  had  obtained,  but  no  hallu- 
cinations or  false  perceptions,  I  was  sitting  alone  in  my 
room  looking  out  of  the  window.  My  thoughts  were  of  in- 
different trivialities ;  after  a  time  my  mind  seemed  to  become 
absolutely  vacant ;  my  eyes  felt  fixed,  the  air  seemed  to 
grow  white.  I  could  see  objects  about  me,  but  it  was  a 
terrible  effort  of  will  to  perceive  anything.  I  then  felt  great 
and  painful  sense  as  of  sympathy  with  some  one  suffering,  who 
or  where  I  did  not  know.  After  a  little  time  I  knew  with  whom, 
but  how  I  knew  I  cannot  tell ;  for  it  seemed  some  time  after 
this  knowledge  of  personality  that  I  saw  distinctly,  in  my  brain, 
not  before  my  eyes,  a  large,  square  room,  evidently  in  a  hotel, 
and  saw  the  person  of  whom  I  had  been  conscious,  lying  face 
downward  on  the  bed  in  the  throes  of  mental  and  physical 
anguish.  I  felt  rather  than  heard  sobs  and  grieving,  and  felt 
conscious  of  the  nature  of  the  grief  subjectively;  its  objective 
cause  was  not  transmitted  to  me.  Extreme  exhaustion  followed 
the  experience,  which  lasted  forty  minutes  intensely,  and  then 
very  slowly  wore  away.  Let  me  note  : — 

"ist.  I  had  not  thought  of  the  person  for  some  time  and  there 
was  no  reminder  in  the  room. 

<c  2nd.  The  experience  was  remembered  with  more  vividness 
than  that  seen  in  the  normal  way,  while  the  contrary  is  true  of 
dreams. 


IDEAS  AND  EMOTIONS.  177 

"3rd.  The  natural  order  of  perception  was  reversed,  t.e.9  the 
emotion  came  first,  the  sense  of  a  personality  second,  the  vision 
or  perception  of  the  person  third. 

"I  should  be  glad  to  have  a  theory  given  of  this  reverse  in  the 
natural  order  of  perception." 

The  agent,  M.,  is  well  known  to  both  Professor 
Royce  and  Dr.  Hodgson.  In  the  report  it  is  stated 
that  "  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  his  high  character  and 
general  good  judgment/'  He  writes  as  follows  : — 

"BOSTON,  Nov.  i6th,  1886. 

"  Some  years  ago,  perhaps  eight  or  nine,  while  in  a  city  of 
Rhode  Island  on  business,  my  house  being  then,  as  now,  in 
Boston,  I  received  news  which  was  most  unexpected  and  dis- 
tressing to  me,  affecting  me  so  seriously  that  I  retired  to  my 
room  at  the  hotel,  a  large  square  room,  and  threw  myself  upon 
my  bed,  face  downward,  remaining  there  a  long  time  in  great 
mental  distress.  The  acuteness  of  the  feeling  after  a  time 
abating,  I  left  the  room.  I  returned  next  day  to  Boston,  and 
the  day  after  that  received  a  short  letter  from  the  person  whose 
statement  I  enclose  herewith,  and  dated  at  the  town  in  Western 
New  York,  from  which  her  enclosed  letter  comes.  The  note 
begged  me  to  tell  her  without  delay  what  was  the  matter  with 
me  'on  Friday,  at  2  o'clock/— the  very  day  and  hour  when  I 
was  affected  as  I  have  described. 

"This  lady  was  a  somewhat  familiar  acquaintance  and  friend, 
but  I  had  not  heard  from  her  for  many  months  previous  to  this 
note,  and  I  do  not  know  that  any  thought  of  her  had  come  into 
my  mind  for  a  long  time.  I  should  still  further  add  that  the 
news  which  had  so  distressed  me  had  not  the  slightest  con- 
nection with  her. 

"  I  wrote  at  once,  stating  that  she  was  right  as  to  her  im- 
pression (she  said  in  her  letter  that  she  was  sure  I  was  in  very 
great  trouble  at  the  time  mentipned),  and  expressed  my  surprise 
at  the  whole  affair. 

"Twice  since  that  time  she  has  written  to  me,  giving  me 
some  impression  in  regard  to  my  condition  or  situation,  both 
referring  to  cases  of  illness  or  suffering  of  some  kind,  and  both 
timespher  impressions  have  proved  correct  enough  to  be  con- 
sidered remarkable,  yet  not  so  exact  in  detail  or  distinctness  as 
the  first  time.  I  feel  confident  that  I  have  her  original  letter, 
but  have  not  been  able  to  command  the  time  necessary  to  find  it. 

"  (Signed)  M. 

"P.S. — The  three  occurrences  above  detailed  comprise  all  the 
experiences  of  this  sort  which  I  have  had  in  my  life." 

12 


178  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

Mr.  M.  has  searched  in  vain  for  the  original  letter 
of  Dr.  N.  referring  to  the  incident  Two  letters, 
however,  referring  to  one  of  the  later  experiences 
mentioned  by  him  have  been  found,  and  copies  of 
them,  made  by  Dr.  Hodgson  on  June  6th,  1887,  are 
given  below. 


DR.  N.  to  MR.  M. 


"  DOCTOR'S 

(Year  not  given). 
"If  I  don't  hear  from  you  to-morrow,  I  shall  write  you  a 

letter  !     I  am  anxious  about  you. 

«  N>» 

(2.) 

MR.  M.  to  DR.  N. 

"  BOSTON,  7^/x  26,  1883. 

"  What  clairvoyant  vision  again  told  you  of  me  Monday  and 
Tuesday  and  Wednesday  ?  Was  it  as  vivid  and  real  as  the 
other  time  ?  It  had,  at  least,  a  very  closely  related  cause. 

"  It  is  past  i  A.M.,  but  I  will  not  go  to  bed  till  I  have  sent  you 
a  word.  A  letter  will  follow  very  soon.  For  two  days  I  have 
been  thinking  of  the  way  you  wrote  to  me  that  time,  and  I 
should  have  written  to  you  within  twenty-four  hours  if  I  had  not 
received  the  note  from  you.  Please  write  to  me  as  you  proposed. 
This  is  only  to  tell  you  that  I  am  alive  and  not  ill,  but  tired, 
tired  !  Tell  me  of  yourself.  I  have  had  a  hard  three  months 
in  the  West,  eighteen  to  twenty  hours  a  day,  scarce  a  respite  — 
I  am  not  ill  ;  I  am  sure  I  am  not,  but  I  am  worked  out.  I 
couldn't  get  to  -  or  write. 

"  I  used  the  telegraph  even  with  my  sisters. 

"  I  hope  for  a  letter,  and  will  surely  send  you  one. 

"  Yours, 

"  M." 

These  letters,  which  apparently  relate  to  the  second 
of  the  three  experiences  mentioned  by  M.,  afford 
incidentally  strong  corroboration  of  the  accuracy  of 
the  statements  made  as  to  the  first  and  most  remark- 
able experience. 

Several    instances   have   been    already  published 


IDEAS  AND  EMOTIONS.  179 

(Phantasms  of  the  Living,  vol.  ii.  pp.  3^S-37o)  of 
what  appears  to  be  telepathic  affection,  in  which  there 
was  no  apparent  link  to  connect  the  agent  and  per- 
cipient Thus  intimation  of  the  deaths  of  three  dukes 
— Cambridge,  Portland,  and  Wellington — was  con- 
veyed to  complete  strangers,  A  similar  impression 
is  recorded  (Journal  S.P.&.,  Nov.  1892)  as  affecting 
a  stranger  at  the  death  of  Lord  Tennyson,  and  a 
somewhat  similar  instance  is  recorded  (Journal,  May 
1892)  in  connection  with  the  death  of  General  the 
Hon.  Sir  Leicester  Smyth.  The  Head-master  of  a 
Grammar  School  in  Leicester  saw  in  a  vision  the  irrup- 
tion of  water  into  the  Thames  Tunnel  (Phantasms,  loc. 
tit}.  In  all  these  cases,  if  we  accept  the  incidents  as 
telepathic,  they  recall,  as  Mr.  Gurney  remarks,  "  the 
Greek  notion  of  tfnjfw?,  the  Rumour  which  spreads  from 
some  unknown  source,  and  far  outstrips  all  known 
means  of  transport."  The  evidence  so  far  adduced, 
however,  is  by  no  means  sufficient  to  establish  any 
such  conclusion.  But  the  following  narrative,  which 
comes  from  a  lady  well  known  to  me,  is  worth  con- 
sidering in  this  connection. 

No.  50. — From  Miss  Y. 

"PERTH,  \^th January  1890. 

"  One  Sunday  evening  I  was  writing  to  my  sister,  in  my  own 
room,  and  a  wild  storm  was  raging  round  the  house  (in  Perth). 
Suddenly  an  eerie  feeling  came  over  me,  I  could  not  keep  my 
thoughts  on  my  letter,  ideas  of  death  and  disaster  haunted  me 
so  persistently.  It  was  a  vague  but  intense  feeling ;  a  sudden 
ghastly  realisation  of  human  tragedy,  with  no  'where/  'how,' 
or  '  when '  about  it. 

"  I  remember  flying  upstairs  to  seek  refuge  with  my  mother, 
and  I  remember  her  soothing  voice  saying,  '  Nonsense,  child/ 
when  I  insisted  that  I  was  sure  '  lots  of  people  were  dying.' 

"  We  both  thought  it  was  a  little  nervous  attack,  and  thought 
no  more  about  it.  But  when  we  heard  the  news  of  the  Tay 
Bridge  disaster  next  day,  we  both  noticed  (we  received  the 
news  separately  from  the  maid  when  she  came  to  wake  us)  that 
the  time  of  the  accident  coincided  with  my  strange  experience 
of  the  evening  before. 


180  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE, 

"  We  spoke  of  the  *  coincidence '  together,  but  did  not  attach 
much  importance  to  it. 

"  I  have  never  had  any  experience  like  it,  before  or  since." 

Mrs.  Y.,  in  a  letter  of  the  same  date,  corroborates 
her  daughter's  statement.  Mrs.  Y.'s  account,  it  should 
be  added,  was  written  without  previous  consultation 
with  Miss  Y.,  and  embodies  her  independent  recollec- 
tion of  the  incident. 

"  On  the  night  of  the  Tay  Bridge  disaster  A.  was  sitting  alone 
in  her  room,  when  she  suddenly  came  running  upstairs  to  me, 
saying  that  she  had  heard  shrieks  in  the  air  ;  that  something 
dreadful  must  have  happened,  for  the  air  seemed  full  of  shrieks. 
She  thought  a  great  many  people  must  be  dying.  Next  morn- 
ing the  milk-boy  told  the  servant  that  the  Tay  Bridge  was 
down." 

In  a  later  letter,  Miss  Y.  adds  : — 

"  My  mother  says  she  cannot  remember  my  having  any  other 
experience  of  the  kind.  It  happened  before  9  P.M.,  we  think." 

From  the  Times  of  December  29th,  1879  (Monday),  it 
appears  that  the  accident  took  place  on  the  previous  evening 
(28th).  The  Edinburgh  train,  due  at  Dundee  at  7. 1 5  P.M.,  crossed 
the  bridge  during  a  violent  gale.  It  was  duly  signalled  from  the 
Fife  side  as  having  entered  on  the  bridge  for  Dundee  at  7.14. 
It  was  seen  running  along  the  rails,  and  then  suddenly  there  was 
observed  a  flash  of  fire.  The  opinion  was  the  train  then  left  the 
rails  and  went  over  the  bridge. 

Motor  Impulses. 

Occasionally  the  telepathic  impression  manifests 
itself  to  consciousness  as  a  monition  or  impulse  to 
perform  a  certain  action.  There  is  no  ground  for 
thinking  in  such  a  case  that  the  idea  transferred  from 
the  agent  has  in  itself  any  special  impulsive  quality. 
The  impulse  towards  action  is  no  doubt  the  result  of 
the  percipient's  unconscious  reasoning  on  the  infor- 
mation supplied  to  him. 

Sometimes  the  impulse  to  action,  though  strong,  is 
vague  and  inarticulate.  Thus  Mrs.  Hadselle,  of  Pitts- 
field,  Mass.,  U.S. A.,  narrates  {Journal  S.P.R.,  May 


IDEAS  AND  EMOTIONS.  i8l 

1891)  that  some  years  ago  she  experienced,  when 
spending  the  evening  with  some  friends,  "a  sudden 
and  unaccountable  desire  to  go  home,  accompanied 
by  a  dread  and  fear  of  something,  I  knew  not  what." 
She  eventually  yielded  to  her  impulse,  and  at  some 
inconvenience  returned  home,  just  in  time  to  rescue 
her  son,  who  was  insensible  through  the  smoke  from 
a  fire  of  wet  sticks  in  his  room.  Professor  Venturi 
(Annales  des  Set.  Psy.y  vol.  iii.  pp.  331-333)  relates 
that  in  July  1885,  in  obedience  to  an  irresistible 
impulse,  he  made  a  sudden  and  quite  unpremeditated 
journey  from  Pozzuoli  to  his  home  at  Nocera,  to  find 
his  child  in  serious  danger  from  a  sudden  attack  of 
croup.  A  case  is  recorded  in  the  Proc.  Am.  S.P.R. 
(pp.  227,  228),  in  which  a  lady  living  in  a  Western 
State  awoke  in  the  night  of  January  3oth-3ist,  1886, 
with  a  strong  feeling  that  her  daughter  in  Washington 
was  ill  and  needed  her,  and  in  the  morning  tele- 
graphed to  her  son-in-law,  offering  to  come  at  once. 
There  had  been  no  previous  cause  of  anxiety  on  the 
mother's  part,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  daughter 
had  been  taken  suddenly  and  seriously  ill  on  that 
night.  A  letter  and  the  telegram  relating  to  the 
event  have  been  preserved.  In  another  case  Lady  de 
Vesci,  in  1872,  telegraphed  on  a  sudden  impulse  from 
Ireland  to  a  friend  in  Hong  Kong.  The  telegram 
arrived  less  than  twenty-four  hours  before  the  re- 
cipient's death,  an  event  which  Lady  de  Vesci  had 
no  reason  to  anticipate  for  some  months  (Journal 
S.P.R.,  October  1891)., 

In  another  case,  also  recorded  by  Mrs.  Hadselle 
(loc.  cit.\  the  impulse  took  the  form  of  a  voice  bidding 
her  go  to  a  certain  town,  where,  as  it  appeared,  an 
intimate  friend  stood  in  urgent  need  of  her.  The 
effect  produced  in  this  case  was  so  strong  that  the 
percipient  actually  bought  a  fresh  railway  ticket  and 
changed  her  route.  In  the  following  case  the  impulse 
found  a  more  unusual  mode  of  expression — viz.,  utter- 
ance on  the  part  of  the  percipient. 


I §2  APPARITIONS  AND   THOUGHT-f  RANSFERENC2. 

No.  51.— From  ARCHDEACON  BRUCE. 

"ST.  WOOLOS'  VICARAGE,  NEWPORT, 

MONMOUTHSHIRE,  July  6t/t,  1892. 

"  On  April  iQth,  Easter  Tuesday,  I  went  to  Ebbw  Vale  to 
preach  at  the  opening  of  a  new  iron  church  in  Beaufort  parish. 

"  I  had  arranged  that  Mrs.  Bruce  and  my  daughter  should 
drive  in  the  afternoon. 

"  The  morning-  service  and  public  luncheon  over,  I  walked  up 
to  the  Vicarage  at  Ebbw  Vale  to  call  on  the  Vicar.  As  I  went 
there  I  heard  the  bell  of  the  new  church  at  Beaufort  ringing 
for  afternoon  service  at  three.  It  had  stopped  some  little  time 
before  I  reached  the  Vicarage  (of  Ebbw  Vale).  The  Vicar  was 
out,  and  it  struck  me  that  I  might  get  back  to  the  Beaufort  new 
church  in  time  to  hear  some  of  the  sermon  before  my  train  left 
(at  4.35).  On  my  way  back  through  Ebbw  Vale,  and  not  far 
from  the  bottom  of  the  hill  on  which  the  Ebbw  Vale  Vicarage 
is  placed,  I  saw  over  a  provision  shop  one  of  those  huge,  staring 
Bovril  advertisements — the  familiar  large  ox-head.  1  had  seen 
fifty  of  them  before,  but  something  fascinated  me  in  connection 
with  this  particular  one.  I  turned  to  it,  and  was  moved  to 
address  it  in  these,  my  ipsissima  verba:  'You  ugly  brute,  don't 
stare  at  me  like  that :  has  some  accident  happened  to  the 
wife  ? '  Just  the  faintest  tinge  of  uneasiness  passed  through  me 
as  I  spoke,  but  it  vanished  at  once.  This  must  have  been  as 
nearly  as  possible  3.20.  I  reached  home  at  six  to  find  the 
vet.  in  my  stable-yard  tending  my  poor  horse,  and  Mrs.  Bruce 
and  my  daughter  in  a  condition  of  collapse  in  the  house.  The 
accident  had  happened — so  Mrs.  Bruce  thinks — precisely  at 
3.30,  but  she  is  not  confident  of  the  moment.  My  own  times  I 
can  fix  precisely. 

"  I  had  no  reason  to  fear  any  accident,  as  my  coachman  had 
driven  them  with  the  same  horse  frequently,  and  save  a  little 
freshness  at  starting,  the  horse  was  always  quiet  on  the  road, 
even  to  sluggishness.  A  most  unusual  occurrence  set  it  off.  A 
telegraph  operator,  at  the  top  of  a  telegraph  post,  hauled  up  a 
long  flashing  coil^of  wire  under  the  horse's  nose.  Any  horse  in 
the  world,  except' the  Troy  horse,  would  have  bolted  under  the 
circumstances. 

"  My  wife's  estimate  of  the  precise  time  can  only  be  taken  as 
approximate.  She  saw  the  time  when  she  got  home,  and  took 
that  as  her  zero,  but  the  confusion  and  excitement  of  the  walk 
home  from  the  scene  of  the  accident  leaves  room  for  doubt  as 
to  her  power  of  settling  the  time  accurately.  The  accident 
happened  about  2#  miles  from  home,  and  she  was  home  by 
4.10 ;  but  she  was  some  time  on  the  ground  waiting  until  the 
horse  was  disengaged,  etc.  "W.  CON YBEARE  BRUCE." 


IDEAS  AND  EMOTIONS.  183 

Archdeacon  Bruce  adds  later  :  — 


"May  2otk,  1893. 

"  I  think  I  stated  the  fact  that  the  impression  of  danger  to 
Mrs.  Bruce  was  only  momentary  —  it  passed  at  once—  and  it  was 
only  when  I  heard  of  the  accident  that  I  recalled  the  impression. 
I  did  not  therefore  go  home  expecting  to  find  that  anything  had 
happened.  "W.  CONYBEARE  BRUCE." 

Mrs.  Bruce  writes  :  — 

"The  first  thought  that  flashed  across  me  as  the  accident 
happened  was,  *  What  will  W.  say  ?  '  My  ruling  idea  then  was 
to  get  home  before  my  husband,  so  as  to  save  him  alarm." 

The  Rev.  A.  T.  Fryer,  to  whom  the  incident  was 
originally  communicated  by  the  percipient,  ascertained 
independently  from  the  Vicar  of  Ebbw  Vale  that  the 
date  of  Archdeacon  Bruce's  visit  to  him  was  April  igth, 
1892.  It  is  worth  noting  that  here,  as  in  case  45,  an 
external  object  appears  to  have  acted  as  a  point  de 
repere,  and  to  have  thus  aided  in  the  development  of  the 
transferred  idea.  Another  instance  of  a  telepathic  im- 
pulse leading  to  speech  is  to  be  found  in  the  Annales 
des  Sciences  Psychiques  (vol.  i.  p.  36).  The  Lady 
Superior  of  a  convent  was  moved  during  the  cele- 
bration of  a  service  to  pray  for  the  safety  of  the 
children  of  a  neighbour  —  a  visitor  to  the  convent  — 
who  was  somewhat  startled  by  the  Superior's  abrupt 
action.  It  subsequently  appeared  that  at  about  the 
time  of  this  prayer  the  two  boys  were  involved  in  $ 
carriage  accident. 

The  most  striking  evidence,  however,  of  telepath- 
ically  induced  action  is  to  be  found  in  automatic 
writing.  Some  experimental  cases  of  the  kind  have 
been  quoted  in  Chapter  IV.  The  spontaneous  cases 
are  more  numerous.  Mr.  Myers  has  recorded  several 
instances  in  his  article  on  Motor  Automatism  (Proc. 
S.P.R.,  vol.  ix.  pp.  26  et  seq.\  and  Mr.  W.  T.  Stead 
has  published,  in  the  Review  of  Reviews  and  else- 
where, accounts  of  messages  and  conversations  with 
friends  at  a  distance  written  through  his  hand. 


1 84  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

Generally  speaking,  however,  where  living  persons 
are  concerned,  it  is  difficult,  without  full  knowledge 
of  all  the  circumstances,  to  feel  assured  that  the  facts 
recorded  by  this  means  are  not  such  as  might 
conceivably  have  been  within  the  knowledge  of  the 
writer,  or  at  least  within  his  powers  of  conjecture. 
The  best  evidence,  therefore,  for  spontaneous  tele- 
pathic automatism  is  no  doubt  afforded  by  those 
cases  in  which  some  altogether  unforeseen  event, 
such  as  the  death  of  the  presumed  agent,  is  communi- 
cated. Such  is  the  case  recorded  by  M.  Aksakof 
(Psyckische  Studien}  February  1889,  quoted  in  Proc. 
S.P.R.,  vol.  v.  pp.  434,  etc.),  in  which  Mademoiselle 
Emma  Stramm,  a  Swiss  governess  at  Wilna,  on  the 
1 5th  January  1887  wrote  particulars  of  the  death  on  the 
same  day  of  a  former  acquaintance  of  hers,  August 
Duvanel,  in  Canton  Zurich.  A  similar  instance  is 
recorded  by  Dr.  Ltebeault  (Annales  des  Sciences 
PsychiqueS)  vol.  i.  pp.  25,  26).  The  automatic  writer 
was  in  this  case  at  Nancy,  and  the  person  whose 
death  was  announced  was  a  young  English  lady  resi- 
dent at  Coblentz.  Dr.  Li6beault  was  shown  the  written 
message  within  an  hour  or  two  of  the  stance,  and 
some  days  before  news  of  the  death  was  received. 
Other  cases  of  the  kind  are  recorded  by  M.  Aksakof 
and  others  (Revue  Spirite,  August  1891,  April  1892, 
etc.). 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

COINCIDENT  DREAMS. 

SEEING  that  so  large  a  part  of  our  lives  is  spent  in 
sleep,  we  should  perhaps  be  warranted  in  looking 
amongst  dreams  for  evidence  of  the  transference  of 
thought  from  one  mind  to  another ;  especially  as  the 
quiescence  and  the  absence  of  outward  impressions 
characteristic  of  sleep  are  precisely  the  conditions 
indicated  by  our  researches  as  favourable  to  such 
transmission.  Nor  do  the  actual  results  in  this 
direction  at  all  fall  short  of  any  reasonable  ex- 
pectation. Long  before  scientific  attention  was 
directed  to  the  subject  the  coincidences  reported 
between  dreams  and  external  events  had  won  the 
special  consideration  of  the  superstitious,  and  had 
given  to  the  dreamer  of  dreams  high  rank  in  the 
company  of  the  prophets  and  soothsayers.  And 
such  coincidences  appear  to  be  not  less  frequent  at 
the  present  time.  My  chief  difficulty  in  writing  this 
chapter  has  been  the  task  of  selection  from  the  super- 
abundant material  at  hand,  much  of  it  accumulated 
within  the  last  five  or  six  years  ;  and  this  material 
is  itself  the  carefully-sifted  residuum  of  a  much  larger 
mass  of  testimony,  inferior,  if  at  all,  by  slight  and 
various  degrees.  But  notwithstanding  this  great  ac- 
cumulation, it  cannot  be  contended  that  the  proof  of 
telepathy  derived  from  a  consideration  of  dream  coin- 
cidences is  at  all  comparable  in  cogency  with  that 
furnished  by  impressions  received  during  waking  life. 


1 86  At>t>AkiTioNS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

That  some  at  least  of  the  dreams  quoted  below  owed 
their  origin  to  ideas  transmitted  to  the  sleeper  from 
another  mind  will  no  doubt  be  admitted  as  probable, 
but  the  probability  depends  perhaps  not  more  on  their 
intrinsic  value  than  on  the  analogy  of  similar  testimony 
from  waking  percipients.  When  (as  in  some  of  the 
cases  to  be  given  later,  in  Chapters  X.-XIII.)  a  witness 
of  integrity  asserts  that  he  saw  in  broad  daylight  a 
figure  where  no  such  figure  was,  resembling  a  friend, 
and  coincident  with  that  friend's  death,  we  are  justi- 
fied in  attaching  great  weight  to  the  coincidence. 
But  if  the  same  witness  had  dreamt  of  the  figure, 
instead  of  seeing  it,  the  coincidence  would  deserve 
far  less  consideration.  And  yet  the  cerebral  mechan- 
ism involved  in  both  processes  is  no  doubt  very 
similar.  A  dream  is  a  hallucination  in  sleep,  and 
a  hallucination  is  only  a  waking  dream  ;  though  it 
is  probable  that  the  waking  impression,  seeing  that 
it  can  contend  on  equal  terms  with  the  impressions 
derived  from  external  objects,  is  more  vivid  than  the 
common  run  of  dreams.  But  the  evidence  of  dream 
coincidence  is  defective,  primarily,  from  the  frequency 
of  dreams  ;  it  is  only  a  small  proportion  of  educated 
persons,  at  any  rate,  who  ever  experience  a  hallucina- 
tion, but  everybody  dreams  occasionally,  and  some 
persons  dream  every  night.  Clearly  there  must  be 
here  a  wide  scope  for  coincidence.  Secondly,  whilst 
dream  impressions  are  probably  less  vivid  at  the 
time,  they  are  certainly  more  elusive  in  the  memory. 
There  is  a  serious  risk,  therefore,  that  after  the  event 
is  known  detailed  correspondences  may  be  read  back 
into  the  indistinct  picture  preserved  in  the  memory; 
or  that  a  dream  which  at  the  time  made  but  a  slight 
impression  may  be  charged  retrospectively  with  emo- 
tional significance.  Finally,  as  the  dream  does  not 
enter  into  any  organic  series  of  impressions,  and  has 
no  landmarks  of  its  own,  either  in  space  or  time,  it 
becomes  after  the  lapse  of  a  few  days,  or  even  hours, 
a  matter  of  difficulty  to  determine  its  date.  Against 


C6lNCiDENf  DREAMS.  18/ 

the  last  two  sources  of  error  it  is  indeed  possible 
to  guard.  Under  ordinary  circumstances  no  dream 
should  be  regarded  as  having  evidential  value  which 
has  not  been  either  recorded  in  writing  or  mentioned 
to  some  other  person  before  the  coincidence  is  known. 
Mention  of  the  dream  immediately  after  the  receipt 
of  the  news,  even  with  persons  of  proved  accuracy,  can 
by  no  means  be  regarded  as  equivalent  to  mention 
of  it  beforehand.  For  it  is  possible,  as  already 
pointed  out  (p.  155),  that  some  alleged  coincident 
and  prophetic  dreams  may  be  due  to  hallucination 
of  memory,  or  still  more  probably  to  the  embel- 
lishment and  amplification  of  vague  pre-existent 
memories. 

But  however  carefully  dreams  are  noted  and 
described,  the  objection  still  holds  good  that  with 
impressions  of  such  frequent  occurrence  chance  alone 
will  account  for  a  considerable  number  of  coinci- 
dences. It  is  easy,  however,  on  a  superficial  view 
to  exaggerate  the  probabilities  of  chance  coincidence. 
The  great  majority  of  dreams,  vague  at  the  time  and 
fugitive  in  the  retrospect,  are  like  footsteps  in  the 
sand.  Yet  as,  here  and  there,  one  set  of  footprints  out 
of  the  millions  impressed  upon  the  shore  of  a  long- 
forgotten  sea  has  been  preserved  for  us  in  sand  now 
turned  to  stone,  so  now  and  then  one  dream  stands 
out  from  all  the  rest,  and  leaves  on  the  memory  an 
imprint  which  the  daily  reflux  of  the  tide  of  con- 
sciousness cannot  efface.  If  we  strike  out  of  the 
account  all  the  dreams  which  are  too  vague  to  leave 
any  permanent  impress  on  waking,  all  those  which 
are  purely  inconsequent  and  fantastic,  and  all  which 
can  be  readily  traced  to  some  physical  cause,  we  shall 
find  that  the  number  which  we  have  to  deal  with, — 
the  number,  that  is,  of  vivid  and  passably  realistic 
dreams,  —  though  no  doubt  large,  is  perhaps  not 
beyond  the  range  of  definite  calculation.  It  could 
not,  for  instance,  be  plausibly  contended  that  the 
correspondence  of  a  dream  such  as  that  of  Captain 


1 88  APPARITIONS  AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

& 

Campbell's,  recorded  below,  with  the  death  of  the 
person  portrayed,  is  on  the  same  level  as  the  pro- 
phetic vision  of  the  City  clerk,  who,  dreaming  every 
other  night  of  the  success  of  some  horse  which  he  has 
backed,  happens  on  some  one  occasion  to  dream  of 
the  future  winner. 

It  will  be  observed  that  of  the  nine  dreams  which 
are  given  in  full  in  this  chapter,  no  less  than  four  are 
concerned  with  death.  Of  the  much  larger  number — 
149 — of  coincident  dreams  published  in  Phantasms  of 
the  Living,  no  less  than  79  relate  to  a  death.  Now,  as 
dreams  of  death  or  suggesting  death  do  not  form  a 
large  proportion  of  dreams  in  general,  their  startling 
preponderance  amongst  coincident  dreams  constitutes 
in  itself  an  argument  for  ascribing  such  dreams  to  tele- 
pathy; for  if  any  power  exists  whereby  one  mind  can 
affect  another,  it  would  appear  a  priori  probable  that 
such  a  power  would  be  exercised  most  frequently  and 
effectually  at  times  of  exceptional  crisis.  As  has 
been  pointed  out  by  Mr.  Gurney  (Phantasms  of  the 
Living;  vol.  i.  p.  303),  the  preponderance  amongst 
"true"  dreams  of  dreams  relating  to  death  may  in- 
deed be  explained  on  the  assumption  that  such 
dreams  are  more  frequently  remembered  than  other 
"true"  dreams.  This  assumption  is  no  doubt  in  a 
measure  justified,  but  the  consequences  of  admitting 
its  truth  must  not  be  overlooked  ;  for  it  of  course 
follows  that  a  large  number  of  coincident  dreams 
are  forgotten,  i.e.,  that  the  grounds  furnished  by 
dreams  for  believing  in  telepathy  are  much  stronger 
than  would  at  first  sight  appear. 

Again,  the  frequency  of  coincident  dreams  of 
death  offers  a  favourable  opportunity  for  estimating 
the  probabilities  of  their  occurrence  by  chance.  Thrj 
problem  is  simplified  in  one  direction  by  the  con- 
sideration that  death  is  at  all  events  a  unique  event 
in  the  history  of  the  agent  If  we  can  ascertain  the 
proportion  which  "  true  "  bear  to  "  not-true  "  dreams 
of  death,  we  can  calculate  by  means  of  the  tables  of 


COINCIDENT  DREAMS.  189 

mortality  the  probabilities  for  some  other  cause  than 
chance.  The  problem  was  actually  attempted  by  Mr. 
Gurney,  who  found  that  coincident  dreams  of  death 
in  the  collection  published  in  Phantasms  of  the  Living 
were  twenty-four  times  as  numerous  as  chance  would 
allow.1 

Theoretically,  dreams  are  of  considerable  interest 
as  throwing  light  upon  the  nature  of  waking  impres- 
sions ;  for  it  should  be  observed  that  dreams  are  of 
many  kinds  and  of  many  degrees  of  vividness.  Some 
in  the  vagueness  and  ideality  of  the  impressions  re- 
semble closely  the  waking  experiences  recorded  in 
the  preceding  chapter.  Others  in  their  extreme  clear- 
ness and  semi-externalisation  approach  nearly  to  the 
level  of  hallucinations.  But  whilst  few  persons  above 
the  level  of  the  savage  believe  that  their  dream  per- 
cepts correspond  to  actual  external  objects  visibly 
present,  there  are  some  who  think  that  the  hallucina- 
tory image  of  a  dying  friend  which  they  see  with  their 
eyes  open,  and  taking  a  place  in  the  external  order  of 
things,  must,  just  because  they  see  it  with  open  eyes, 
form  a  part  of  that  external  order.  And  if  the  per- 
cipient himself  is  not  under  any  such  misconception, 
the  journalist  who  sneers  at  him  for  believing  in 

1  Phantasms,  vol.  i.  pp.  303-310.  The  statement  in  the  text  must 
not  be  regarded  as  having  more  weight  than  its  author  himself  would 
have  assigned  to  it.  Mr.  Gurney  certainly  regarded  his  estimate  as 
little  more  than  a  guess— a  guess  indeed  made  by  one  who  had  care- 
fully studied  and  weighed  the  facts,  so  far  as  they  could  be  known, 
but  because  of  our  inevitable  ignorance  a  guess  still,  rather  than  an 
estimate  on  the  approximate  accuracy  of  which  it  would  be  safe  to  rely. 
The  calculation  depends  on  several  assumptions,  one  or  two  of  which, 
at  least,  are  highly  controvertible;  for  instance,  the  accuracy  of  the 
5187  persons  who  asserted  that  they  had  not  within  a  given  period  of 
twelve  years  had  an  exceptionally  vivid  and  distressing  dream  relating 
to  the  death  of  a  friend;  and  the  accuracy  of  the  twenty -four  persons 
who  described  themselves  as  having  had  within  the  same  period  a 
similar  dream  actually  occurring  within  twelve  hours  of  the  death  of 
the  person  represented.  Probably  the  estimate  given  requires  modifi- 
cation by  large  allowances  being  made  in  both  directions  for  defects  of 
memory.  But  even  when  thus  discounted  the  coincidences  will,  it  is 
thought,  by  any  one  who  carefully  studies  the  subject  be  found  to  be 
more  numerous  than  can  plausibly  be  attributed  to  chance. 


190  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

"ghosts"  is  so,  by  his  own  confession.  If  once  it 
is  recognised  that  between  dreams  and  hallucinations 
there  is  no  essential  difference,  the  chief  obstacle  to 
the  acceptance,  by  two  different  classes  of  minds,  of 
telepathy  as  the  explanation  of  coincident  hallucina- 
tions will  have  disappeared.  It  will  become  clear,  on 
the  one  hand,  that  a  belief  in  the  significance  of  such 
hallucinations  does  not  necessarily  carry  with  it  a 
belief  in  " ghosts";  and  on  the  other,  that  the  fact 
of  an  apparition  taking  its  place  as  a  fully  external- 
ised percept  does  not  imply  any  substantial  basis  for 
the  percept. 

In  dealing  with  dreams  we  will  discuss  first  those 
which  resemble  most  closely  the  experimental  results 
and  the  cases  considered  in  the  last  chapter,  and 
proceed  from  these  to  dreams  which  include  a  definite 
representation  of  the  agent  Finally,  cases  of  some- 
what aberrant  type  and  clairvoyant  dreams  will  be 
considered. 

Simultaneous  Dreams. 

No.  52.— From  Miss  INA  BIDDER. 

"RAVENSBURY  PARK,  MITCHAM, 

June  io///,  1890. 

"  The  night  before  last  a  curious  case  of  what  I  cannot  but 
call  telepathy  occurred  between  myself  and  my  sister.  (We 
sleep  in  the  same  room.)  For  the  last  two  years  the  whole 
family  have  been  very  much  interested  in  some  skeletons  and 
flint  instruments  found  in  a  gravel  pit  in  one  of  the  fields.  They 


..  .  pleased   ..    __„ 

them.  He  was  a  particularly  interesting  one,  as  we  found  a 
flint  arrow-head  in  his  hip-bone,  but  we  only  got  to  his  ribs. 
On  the  night  in  question  I  dreamt  that  my  father  was  excavating 
in  a  more  approved  method,  taking  off  the  top  mould  and  leav- 
ing the  bones  in  their  original  position  in  the  brown  earth,  so 
that  you  could  see  the  form  of  the  man  to  whom  they  had 
belonged.  In  this  way  we  lifted  out  the  rest  of  the  skeleton  at 
which  my  sister  and  I  had  been  working,  and  behold !  when  we 
got  to  the  skull  it  had  a  snout.  We  were  delighted  to  be  able  to 
prove  this  extraordinary  fact  respecting  palaeolithic  man,  and  the 


COINCIDENT  DREAMS.  IQI 

doctors  crowded  down  from  town  to  see  the  creature ;  but  my 
sister  was  nowhere  about,  and  in  my  anxiety  to  tell  her  of  our 
discovery  I  woke  myself  and  nearly  woke  her.  I  stopped  myself 
just  in  time,  thinking  what  a  shame  it  was  to  spoil  her  night's 
rest  for  a  dream.  Still  wishing  she  were  awake  to  hear,  and 
thinking  again  of  the  curious  effect  of  the  black,  earth-filled 
skull,  with  its  projecting  snout,  and  dreaming  of  my  dream,  I 
turned  over  and  dropped  into  another.  Before  I  had  got  well 
started  in  this,  however,  I  was  awakened  by  my  sister  trying  to 
light  the  candle.  'What  is  it?'  I  said,  'what's  the  matter?' 
1  I've  just  had  such  a  horrid  dream/  she  answered ;  c  it  haunts 
me  still.'  But  I  do  not  think  I  need  repeat  her  dream,  which  I 
believe  she  has  written." 

Miss  M.  Bidder  writes  as  follows : — 

"June  9///,  1890. 

"  I  was  sleeping  last  night  with  my  sister,  with  whom  I  have 
shared  a  room  all  my  life.  I  was  sleeping  soundly,  and  my 
dreams,  of  which  I  now  retain  only  the  vaguest  recollection, 
took  their  most  usual  form  of  a  confused  repetition  of  all  the 
events  of  the  past  day  jumbled  together  without  meaning  or 
sequence,  and  without  even  much  distinctness.  ^  The  whole 
scene  of  the  dream  was  hazy  and  confused,  until  I  became 
suddenly  conscious  of  the  figure  of  a  skeleton  in  the  foreground, 
as  it  were,  which  disturbed  me  in  my  dream  with  a  sense  of 
incongruity.  I  first  made  a  half-conscious  effort  to  banish  the 
figure — which  struck  me  with  great  horror— from  my  dream, 
but  instead  of  disappearing  it  grew  more  and  more  prominent 
and  distinct,  while  all  the  rest  of  the  scene  and  the  people  in  it 
seemed  fading  away.  The  figure  of  the  skeleton,  which  I  can 
perfectly  recall,  presented  one  of  the  most  vivid  impressions  I 
ever  remember  to  have  received  in  a  dream.  It  appeared  to 
stand  upright  before  me,  with  what  seemed  to  be  a  dark  cloak 
hanging  about  its  limbs  and  forming  a  kind  of -background  as  of 
a  black  hood  behind  the  skull,  which  showed  against  it  with 
extreme  distinctness.  It  was  on  the  skull,  which  was  facing  me 
full,  that  my  attention  was  chiefly  concentrated,  and  as  I  stared 
at  it  it  slowly  turned  sideways,  showing,  to  my  horror,  the  profile 
of  a  very  long,  sharp  nose  in  place  of  the  hollow  socket.  The  feel- 
ing of  terror  with  which  I  perceived  this  (for  the  first  time)  was 
so  intense  as  to  awaken  me,  nor  could  I  even  then  entirely  banish 
it.  So  unpleasantly  strong,  indeed,  was  the  impression  of  some 
horrible  presence  which  still  remained,  that  it  was  with  difficulty 
that  I  resisted  the  desire  to  rouse  my  sister  that  she  might  help 
me  to  shake  it  off.  Some  movement  of  mine  did  in  fact  pre- 
sently awake  her,  and  I  at  once  began  to  tell  her  of  my  horrible 
dream.  Before,  however,  I  had  described  it  to  her,  she  inter- 
rupted me  to  tell  me  of  a  dream  which  she  had  had." 


APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

Here  it  is  perhaps  permissible  to  conjecture  that 
some  common  experience  of  their  waking  life  might 
have  suggested  to  both  sisters  the  idea  of  a  primeval 
skeleton  with  a  snout.  But  it  is  remarkable,  if  such 
is  the  true  explanation,  that  the  common  idea  was 
elaborated  into  a  dream  by  the  two  percipients  almost 
simultaneously.  It  must  be  admitted,  however,  that 
such  dreams,  which  have  hitherto  been  reported  only 
as  occurring  between  persons  whose  lives  are  spent 
for  the  most  part  in  the  same  surroundings,  have 
little  value  as  evidence.  It  is  only  those  who  believe, 
on  evidence  derived  from  other  sources,  in  the  reality 
of  telepathy,  who  will  be  inclined  to  regard  such  cases 
as  possibly  due  to  its  action,  rather  than  to  the  spon- 
taneous association  of  ideas  in  minds  sharing  the 
same  experiences  and  moving  to  some  extent  in 
similar  grooves. 

Dreams  coinciding  with  external  events. 

In  the  cases  which  follow  the  coincidence  is  of  a 
more  definite  kind,  and  the  question  is  now  no  longer 
of  the  correspondence  of  thought  in  closely  associated 
minds,  but  of  the  correspondence  of  thought  with  an 
outward  event — with  something  done  or  suffered  by 
the  person  whose  mind  apparently  affects  that  of  the 
dreamer. 

Transference  of  Sensation  in  Dreams. 

The  following  case,  quoted  from  the  Proc.  of  the 
Am.  S.P.R.  (pp.  226,  227),  offers  a  curious  parallel  to 
some  of  the  cases  recorded  at  the  beginning  of  Chapter 
II.  The  narrator  is  a  lady  of  Boston,  whose  good 
faith  is  vouched  for  by  Professor  Royce.  She  wrote 
from  Hamburg  on  the  2jrd  of  June  1887  to  her 
sister,  who  was  at  that  time  in  Boston,  U.S.A.  The 
following  is  an  extract  from  this  letter  : — 


COINCIDENT   DREAMS.  193 

No.  53. 

"  I  very  nearly  wrote  from  the  Hague  to  say  that  I  should  be 
very  thankful  when  we  had  a  letter  from  you  of  the  i8th  of 
June  saying  that  you  were  well  and  happy.  ...  In  the  night  of 
the  1 7th  I  had  what  I  suppose  to  be  a  nightmare,  but  it  all 
seemed  to  belong  to  you  .  .  .  and  to  be  a  horrid  pain  in  your 
head,  as  if  it  were  being  forcibly  jammed  into  an  iron  casque,  or 
some  such  pleasant  instrument  of  torture.  The  queer  part  of 
it  was  my  own  dissociation  from  the  pain,  and  conviction  that 
it  was  yours.  I  suppose  it  was  some  slight  painful  sensation 
magnified  into  something  quite  severe  by  a  half-asleep  con- 
dition. It  will  be  a  fine  example  of  what  the  Society  for 
Psychical  Research  ought  to  be  well  supplied  with — an  Ahnung 
which  came  to  nothing." 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  lady  in  Boston  to  whom 
this  letter  was  addressed  is  shown,  on  the  evidence  of 
a  dentist's  bill,  to  have  spent  on  the  i/th  June  an 
hour  and  three-quarters  in  the  operating  chair,  while 
a  painful  tooth  was  being  stopped.  The  discomfort 
consequent  on  the  operation,  as  was  learnt  from  the 
patient  herself,  "  continued  as  a  dull  pain  for  some 
hours,  in  such  wise  that  during  the  afternoon  of  the 
1 7th  June  the  patient  could  not  forget  the  difficulty 
at  all.  She  slept,  however,  as  usual  at  night.  The 
nightmare  in  Europe  followed  the  operation  in  Boston 
by  a  good  many  hours,  but  the  pain  of  the  tooth 
returned  daily  for  some  three  weeks."  As  the  letter 
was  written  from  Europe  six  days  after  the  night- 
mare there  was  of  course  no  possibility  of  any 
communication  having  passed  in  the  interval  except 
by  telegram. 

In  the  next  case  also  the  coincidence  was  of  a 
trivial  nature,  but  appears  to  have  been  exact  in  point 
Df  time.  The  narrative  is  quoted  here  because  the 
impression,  though  not  described  beforehand,  was  of 
a  quite  unusual  kind,  being  in  part,  if  not  altogether, 
a  waking  experience.  It  is  doubtful,  indeed,  whether 
It  should  be  classed  as  a  dream,  and  not  rather  as  a 
t(  borderland  "  hallucination. 


194  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

No.  54.— From  MRS.  HARRISON. 

"February  7//z,  1891. 

"  I  reside  with  my  husband  at  15  Lupton  Street,  N.W.  This 
afternoon  I  was  lying  on  the  sofa,  sound  asleep,  when  I  suddenly 
awoke,  thinking  I  heard  my  husband  sigh  as  if  in  pain.  I 
arose  immediately,  expecting  to  find  him  in  the  room.  He  was 
not  there,  and  looking  at  my  watch  I  found  it  was  half-past 
three.  At  six  o'clock  my  husband  came  in.  He  called  my 
attention  to  a  bruise  on  his  forehead,  which  was  caused  by  his 
having  knocked  it  against  the  stone  steps  in  a  Turkish  bath.  I 
said  to  him,  '  I  know  when  it  happened — it  was  at  half-past  three, 
for  I  heard  you  sigh  as  if  in  pain  at  that  time.'  He  replied, 
'  Yes,  that  was  the  exact  time,  for  I  remember  noticing  the  clock 
directly  after.' 

"The  gentleman  who  appends  his  name  as  witness  was 
present  when  this  conversation  took  place. 

"  LOUISA  E.  HARRISON. 
"Witness  :  Henry  Hooton,  23  Bunhill  Row,  E.G." 

This  account  was  sent  to  the  S.P.R.  by  Mr. 
Harrison  on  the  day  of  the  occurrence  described.  In 
an  accompanying  letter  he  writes :  "  Everything 
happened  exactly  as  stated." 

In  the  cases  which  follow,  with  one  exception,  the 
dream  impression  was  of  a  well-marked  visual  nature. 
In  the  first  three  narratives  the  dream  had  reference 
to  the  death  of  the  person  represented.  The  mode 
of  representation,  however,  it  will  be  seen,  differed  in 
each  case.  In  the  first,  the  associated  imagery  was  in 
part  of  a  fantastic  nature,  and  the  dream,  though 
sufficiently  exceptional  to  leave  a  feeling  of  fatigue  on 
the  following  morning,  and  to  induce  the  percipient 
to  write  an  account  of  it  to  his  friends,  resembled  in 
other  respects  the  motley  crowd  which  throng  through 
the  gate  of  ivory.  In  the  second  case  the  surround- 
ings of  the  central  figure  were  such  as  the  waking 
imagination  of  the  dreamer  would  naturally  have  con- 
jured up  in  picturing  the  deathbed  of  his  friend. 


COINCIDENT  DREAMS.  IQS 

No.  55,— From  MR.  J.  T. 

This  case  is  recorded  at  some  length  in  the  Proceedings  of 
the  Am.  S.P.R,  (pp.  394-397)  by  Professor  Royce.  Professor 
Royce  explains  that  Mr.  E.,  the  agent,  died  after  a  short  illness 
in  New  York  City,  on  Tuesday,  February  23rd,  1886.  Mr. 
J.  T.,  who,  though  an  acquaintance  of  Mr.  E.,  had  heard  nothing 
of  him  for  some  time,  and,  as  indeed  appears  from  the  letters 
quoted,  knew  of  no  special  cause  for  anxiety,  was  on  the  day  of 
the  death,  and  for  some  time  afterwards,  in  St.  John,  New 
Brunswick.  In  consequence  of  severe  snowstorms,  no  mails  had 
been  received  in  St.  John  from  the  South  for  some  days,  and  at 
the  time  when  the  letter,  an  extract  from  which  we  give  below, 
was  written,  it  was  not  possible  for  the  writer  to  have  known  of 
Mr.  E.'s  death.  The  original  letter,  written  by  Mr.  J.  T.  to  his 
wife,  and  dated  Wednesday,  March  3rd,  1886,  on  paper  headed 
Hotel  Dufferin,  St.  John,  N.B.,  has  been  seen  by  Professor 
Royce  : — 

"  I  have  not  heard  of  you  for  an  age.  The  train  that  should 
have  been  here  on  Friday  last  has  not  arrived  yet.  I  had 
a  very  strange  dream  on  Tuesday  night.  I  have  never  been  in 
Ottawa  in  my  life,  and  yet  I  was  there,  in  Mr.  E.'s  house.  Mrs. 
E.,  Miss  E.,  and  the  little  girls  were  in  great  trouble  because 
Mr.  E.  was  ill.  I  had  to  go  and  tell  my  brother  [Mr.  E.'s  son- 
in-law],  and,  strange  to  say,  he  was  down  a  coal-mine. 

"When  I  got  down  to  him  I  told  him  that  Mr.  E.  was 
dead.  But  in  trying  to  get  out  we  could  not  do  it.  We  climbed 
and  climbed,  but  always  fell  back.  I  felt  tired  out  when  I  awoke 
next  morning,  and  I  cannot  account  for  the  dream  in  any  way." 

Though  the  letter  leaves  it  doubtful  whether  the 
dream  actually  occurred  on  the  night  of  the  death, 
or  a  week  later,  it  appears  from  further  correspond- 
ence that  the  percipient  believes  the  dream  to  have 
taken  place  on  the  night  of  the  23rd  February,  the 
night  of  the  death,  and  this  is  the  most  natural  inter- 
pretation of  the  letter.1  In  any  case,  the  dream  pre- 
ceded the  news  of  the  death. 

In  the  next  case,  again,  the  dream  is  of  a  not 
uncommon  type,  but  the  impression  made,  it  will  be 
seen,  was  such  as  to  wake  the  dreamer  at  the  time, 

•  *  A^rnan  writing  on  Wednesday  would  almost  certainly  say  "last 
night "  if  he  meant  to  indicate  the  preceding  night,  whereas,  having 
just  before  written,  of  "  Friday  last,"  it  was  natural  to  describe  the 
Tuesday  in  the  previous  week  as  simply  "Tuesday." 


1 96  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

and  to  induce  him  in  the  morning  to  take  the  unusual 
course  of  noting  the  dream  in  his  diary. 

No.  56.— From  MR.  R.  V.  BOYLE. 

"3  STANHOPE  TERRACE,  W., 
July  3o//z,  1884. 

"In  India,  early  on  the  morning  of  November  2nd,  1868 
(which  would  be  about  10  to  n  P.M.  of  November  ist  in 
England),  I  had  so  clear  and  striking  a  dream  or  vision 
(repeated  a  second  time  after  a  short  waking  interval) 
that,  on  rising  as  usual  between  6  and  7  o'clock,  I  felt  im- 
pelled at  once  to  write  an  entry  in  my  diary,  which  is  now 
before  me. 

"At  the  time  referred  to  my  wife  and  I  were  in  Simla,  in  the 
Himalayas,  the  summer  seat  of  the  Governor-General,  and  my 
father-in-law  and  mother-in-law  were  living  in  Brighton.  We 
had  not  heard  of  or  from  either  of  them  for  weeks,  nor  had  I 
been  recently  speaking  or  thinking  of  them,  for  there  was  no 
reason  for  anxiety  regarding  them.  It  is  right,  however,  to  say 
that  my  wife's  father  had  gone  to  Brighton  some  months  before 
on  account  of  his  health,  though  he  was  not  more  delicate  than 
his  elder  brother,  who  is  (1884)  still  living. 

"  It  seemed  in  my  dream  that  I  stood  at  the  open  door  of  a 
bedroom  in  a  house  in  Brighton,  and  that  before  me,  by  candle- 
light, I  saw  my  father-in-law  lying  pale  upon  his  bed,  while  my 
mother-in-law  passed  silently  across  the  room  in  attendance  on 
him.  The  vision  soon  passed  away,  and  I  slept  on  for  some 
time.  On  waking,  however,  the  nature  of  the  impression  left 
upon  me  unmistakably  was  that  my  father-in-law  was  dead.  I 
at  once  noted  down  the  dream,  after  which  I  broke  the  news  of 
what  I  felt  to  be  a  revelation  to  my  wife,  when  we  thought  over 
again  and  again  all  that  could  bear  upon  the  matter,  without 
being  able  to  assign  any  reason  for  my  being  so  strongly  and 
thoroughly  impressed.  The  telegraph  from  England  to  Simla 
had  been  open  for  some  time,  but  now  there  was  an  interruption, 
which  lasted  for  about  a  fortnight  longer,  and  on  the  I7th  (fifteen 
days  after  my  dream)  I  was  neither  unprepared  nor  surprised  to 
receive  a  telegram  from  England,  saying  that  my  father-in-law 
had  died  in  Brighton  on  November  ist.  Subsequent  letters 
showed  that  the  death  occurred  on  the  night  of  the  ist. 

"  Dreams,  as  a  rule,  leave  little  impression  on  me,  and  the  one 
above  referred  to  is  the  only  one  I  ever  thought  of  making  a 
note  of,  or  of  looking  expectantly  for  its  fulfilment. 

"R.  VICARY  BOYLE." 


COINCIDENT  DREAMS.  197 

Mrs.  Boyle  writes  as  follows: — 

"6th  August  1887. 

"  I  well  remember  my  husband  telling  me  one  morning,  early 
in  November  1868,  when  at  Simla,  in  India,  that  he  had  had  a 
striking  dream  (repeated)  in  which  my  father,  then  at  Brighton, 
seemed  to  be  dying.  We  were  both  deeply  impressed,  and  then 
anxiously  awaited  news  from  home.  A  telegram  first  reached 
us,  in  about  a  fortnight,  which  was  afterwards  confirmed  by 
letters  telling  of  my  father's  death  having  occurred  on  the  same 
night  when  my  husband  had  the  dream. 

"EL£ONORE  A.  BOYLE. 

Mr.  Gurney  adds  the  following  notes  on  the 
case : — 

"The  following  entries  were  copied  by  me  from  Mr.  Boyle's 
diary: — 

"'Nov.  2.     Dreamed  of  E.;s  F[ather]  early  this  morning. 

"  i  Written  before  dressing. 

"  '  Nov.  17.  Got  telegram  from  L[ouis]  H[ack]  this  morning  of 
his  father's  death  on  1st  Nov.  inst.' 

"The  following  notice  of  the  decease  of  Mr.  Boyle's  father- 
in-law  occurred  in  the  Times  for  4th  November  1868: — 

"'On  ist  Nov.,  at  Brighton,  William  Hack,  late  of  Dieppe, 
aged  72.' 

"Mr.  Boyle  informed  me  that  he  is  a  'particularly  sound 
sleeper,  and  very  rarely  dreams.'  This  dream  was  a  very 
unique  and  impressive  experience,  apart  from  the  coincidence. 

"There  was  a  regular  correspondence  between  Mrs.  Boyle 
and  her  mother,  but  for  several  mails  the  letters  had  contained 
no  mention  of  her  father,  on  whose  account  absolutely  no 
anxiety  was  felt.  "  E.  G." 

It  appears  that  the  death  actually  occurred  at  about 
2  P.M.  in  England,  which  was,  allowing  for  the  differ- 
ence in  longitude,  about  nine  hours  before  the  dream. 

In  the  next  case  the  dream  is  of  a  more  unusual 
character.  The  figure  of  the  agent  appears  to  have 
stood  alone,  whilst  the  impression  made  was  such 
that  the  percipient  is  uncertain  whether  to  class  his 
experience  as  a  dream  or  a  vision.  Indeed,  in  the 
absence  of  dream-background,  and  in  the  lifelike 
appearance  of  the  figure,  the  dream  bears  a  striking 
resemblance  to  a  waking  hallucination. 


198  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

No.  57. — From  CAPTAIN  R.  E.  W.  CAMPBELL 
(2nd  Royal  Irish  Fusiliers). 

"ARMY  AND  NAVY  CLUB,  PALL  MALL,  S.W., 
February  2ist,  1888. 

"  I  have  much  pleasure  in  enclosing  you  an  account  of  a 
remarkable  dream  which  occurred  to  me  in  the  year  1886, 
together  with  three  other  accounts  of  the  same,  written  by 
officers  to  whom  the  facts  of  the  case  are  known.  You  are  at 
liberty,  in  the  interests  of  science,  to  make  such  use  of  them  as 
you  please. 

"  I  was  stationed  at  the  Depot  Barracks,  Armagh,  Ireland, 
on  the  3oth  November  1886,  and  on  the  night  of  the  same  date, 
or  early  in  the  morning  of  the  ist  December  (I  cannot  tell 
which,  as  I  did  not  refer  to  my  watch),  I  was  in  bed  in  my 
room,  when  I  was  awakened  by  a  most  vivid  and  remarkable 
dream  or  vision,  in  which  I  seemed  to  sec  a  certain  Major 
Hubbersty,  late  of  my  regiment,  the  2nd  Battalion  Royal  Irish 
Fusiliers,  looking  ghastly  pale,  and  falling  forward  as  if  dying. 
He  seemed  to  be  saying  something  to  me,  but  the  words  I 
could  not  make  out,  although  I  tried  hard  to  understand  him. 
The  clothes  he  had  on  at  the  time  appeared  to  me  to  have  a 
thin  red  thread  running  through  the  pattern.  I  was  very  deeply 
impressed  by  my  dream,  and  so  much  did  I  feel  that  there  was 
something  significant  in  it  that  on  the  ist  December,  when  at 
luncheon  in  the  mess,  I  related  it  to  three  brother-officers,  tell- 
ing them  at  the  same  time  that  I  felt  sure  we  should  soon  hear 
something  bad  about  Major  Hubbersty.  I  had  almost  forgotten 
all  about  it  when,  on  taking  up  the  Times  newspaper  of  the 
following  Saturday  on  the  Sunday  morning  following,  the  first 
thing  that  caught  my  eyes  was  the  announcement  of  Major 
Hubbersty's  death  at  Penzance,  in  Cornwall,  on  the  3oth 
November,  the  very  date  on  which  I  had  the  remarkable  dream 
concerning  him. 

"  My  feelings  on  seeing  such  a  remarkable  fulfilment  of  my 
dream  can  be  better  imagined  than  described.  Suffice  it  to  say 
that  on  the  return  from  church  of  Messrs.  Kaye  and  Scott  I 
asked  them  to  try  and  recollect  anything  peculiar  which  had 
happened  at  luncheon  on  the  ist  December,  when,  after  a  few 
moments'  deliberation,  they  at  once  recounted  to  me  the  whole 
circumstances  of  my  dream,  as  they  had  heard  them  from  my 
lips  on  the  ist  December  1886.  On  seeing  Mr.  Leeper  a  few 
days  afterwards  at  his  father's  house,  Loughgall,  Co.  Armagh, 
he  at  once  remembered  all  I  had  told  him  about  the  dream 
on  the  ist  December,  on  my  questioning  him  about  it.  I,  of 
course,  can  assign  no  possible  cause  for  the  remarkable  facts 
i elated,  as  apart  from  the  difference  of  our  standing  in  the 


COINCIDENT  DREAMS.  199 

service,  the  late  Major  Hubbersty  and  I  were  in  no  wise 
particularly  friendly  to  one  other,  nor  had  we  seen  very  much 
of  each  other.  I  had  not  seen  him  for  eighteen  months  pre- 
viously. A  very  curious  fact  in  connection  with  the  dream  is 
that  it  occurred  to  me  in  the  very  same  room  in  the  barracks  as 
Major  Hubbersty  used  to  occupy  when  stationed  at  Armagh, 
several  years  previously." 

In  answer  to  an  inquiry,  Captain  Campbell  writes, 
on  February  29th,  1888  : — 

"  I  do  not  dream  much,  as  a  rule,  and  cannot  recall  to  my 
mind  ever  before  having  had  a  dream  of  a  similar  nature  to  that 
dreamt  by  me  about  the  late  Major  Hubbersty." 

Mr.  A.  B.  R.  Kaye,  Lieutenant  Third  Royal  Irish 
Fusiliers,  writes  on  August  2Oth,  1887,  from  62  Fitz- 
william  Square,  Dublin  : — 

"  I  was  stationed  in  the  barracks,  Armagh  Depot,  Royal  Irish 
Fusiliers,  in  November  and  December  1886.  On  the  ist  of 
December  at  lunch  there  were  present  Lieutenant  R.  E.  \V. 
Campbell  (2nd  R.I.F.),  Lieutenant  R.  W.  Leeper  (2nd  R.I.F.), 
Lieutenant  T.  E.  Scott  (4th  R.I.F.),  and  myself.  During  our 
conversation  Major  Hubbersty's  name  was  mentioned,  and 
Campbell  told  us  that  he  had  a  dream  about  him  the  night 
before,  how  he  had  seen  a  vision  of  Major  Hubbersty  looking 
very  pale  and  seeming  to  be  falling  forward,  and  saying  some- 
thing to  him  which  he  could  not  hear ;  also,  he  (Campbell)  told 
us  he  was  sure  we  would  hear  something  about  Major  Hubbersty 
very  soon. 

"  On  the  following  Sunday,  when  Scott  and  I  returned  from 
church  and  went  into  the  ante-room,  Campbell,  who  was  there, 
asked  us  both  to  try  and  remember  anything  peculiar  that  he 
had  told  us  on  the  ist.  After  a  little  time,  we  remembered 
about  the  dream,  and  he  (Campbell)  then  showed  us  the  Times 
newspaper  of  the  day  before,  containing  the  notice  of  Major 
Hubbersty's  death,  at  Penzance,  on  November  3oth,  1886,  the 
same  date  as  that  on  which  he  had  the  dream ;  also,  I  re- 
member, he  (Campbell)  told  us  that  in  his  vision  he  seemed  to 
see  the  clothes  which  Major  Hubbersty  had  on,  and  that  there 
was  a  red  thread  running  through  the  pattern  of  the  trousers." 

The  two  other  friends  mentioned  by  Captain 
Campbell,  Messrs.  Leeper  and  Scott,  have  written 
letters  to  the  same  effect.1 

1  These  letters  are  omittpd  for  want  of  space.  They  are  given  in  full 
in  V&s,  Journal  of  the  S.P.R.  for  April  1888,  pp.  255.  256. 


200  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

From  these  letters  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
coincidence  made  a  marked  impression  on  each  of 
those  to  whom  the  dream  was  related,  and  this  fact, 
perhaps  even  more  than  Captain  Campbell's  own 
narrative,  is  a  striking  proof  of  the  exceptional  nature 
of  the  experience. 

There  is  no  reason  in  this  case  for  supposing  that 
the  dream  conveyed  any  other  information  than  the 
fact  of  the  agent's  death.  There  is  no  evidence  that 
the  manner  of  death  or  the  clothes  worn  by  Major 
Hubbersty  resembled  what  was  seen  in  the  dream. 
The  clothes  in  which  the  figure  appeared  may  have 
been  a  reminiscence  of  clothes  which  the  percipient 
had  actually  seen  worn  on  some  occasion  by  the 
agent  But  this  explanation  will  hardly  apply  to  the 
following  case,  where  the  dream  included  a  represent- 
ation, accurate  in  more  than  one  particular,  of  the 
agent  as  he  actually  appeared  at  the  time.  It  is  true 
that  we  have  to  rely  upon  the  percipient's  memory 
after  the  interval  of  a  fortnight  for  the  details  of  the 
dream,  but  since  the  dream  was  sufficiently  impressive 
to  cause  a  note  to  be  taken  of  it  by  a  person  not  in 
the  habit  of  making  such  notes,  it  seems  not  unreason- 
able to  trust  the  memory  to  that  extent. 

No,  58.— From  MR.  E.  W.  HAMILTON,  CB. 

"PARK  LANE  CHAMBERS,  PARK  LANE,  W., 
April  ^th,  1888. 

"On  Wednesday  morning,  March  2 1st,  1888,  I  woke  up  with 
the  impression  of  a  very  vivid  dream.  I  had  dreamt  that  my 
brother,  who  had  long  been  in  Australia,  and  of  whom  I  had  hearcl 
nothing  for  several  months,  had  come  home ;  that  after  an  absence 
of  twelve  years  and  a  half  he  was  very  little  altered  in  appearance, 
but  that  he  had  something  wrong  with  one  of  his  arms ;  it  looked 
horribly  red  near  the  wrist,  his  hand  being  bent  back. 

"  When  I  got  up  that  morning  the  dream  recurred  constantly 
to  my  thoughts,  and  I  at  last  determined  to  take  a  note  of  it, 
notwithstanding  my  natural  prejudices  against  attaching  any 
importance  to  dreams,  to  which,  indeed,  I  am  not  much  subject 
Accordingly,  in  the  course  of  the  day,  I, made  in  my  little  Letts' 
diary  a  mark  thus  :  X,  with  my  brother's  name  after  it. 


COINCIDENT  DREAMS.  2OI 

"On  the  following  Monday  morning,  the  26th  March,  I 
received  a  letter  from  my  brother,  which  bore  the  date  of  the 
2 ist  March,  and  which  had  been  posted  at  Naples  (where  the 
Orient  steamers  touch),  informing  me  that  he  was  on  his  way 
home,  and  that  he  hoped  to  reach  London  on  or  about  the  3Oth 
March,  and  adding  that  he  was  suffering  from  a  very  severe 
attack  of  gout  in  the  left  arm,  ~ 

"  The  next  day  I  related  to  some  one  this  curious  incident,  and 
I  commented  on  the  extraordinary  coincidence  of  facts  with  the 
dream  except  in  one  detail,  and  that  was,  that  the  arm  which 
I  had  seen  in  my  dream  did  not  look  as  if  it  were  merely  affected 
with  gout:  the  appearance  it  had  presented  to  me  was  more 
like  extremely  bad  eczema. 

"  My  brother  duly  reached  England  on  the  29th,  having  dis- 
embarked at  Plymouth  owing  to  the  painful  condition  of  his  arm. 
It  turned  out  that  the  doctor  on  board  ship  had  mistaken  the 
case ;  it  was  not  gout,  but  a  case  of  blood  poisoning,  resulting 
in  a  very  bad  carbuncle  or  abscess  over  the  wrist  joint. 

"  Since  my  brother's  return,  I  have  endeavoured  to  ascertain 
from  him  the  exact  hour  at  which  he  wrote  to  me  on  March  2ist. 
He  is  not  certain  whether  the  letter  to  me  was  written  before 
noon  or  after  noon  of  that  day.  He  remembers  writing  four 
short  letters  in  the  course  of  that  day — two  before  luncheon  and 
two  after  luncheon.  Had  the  note  addressed  to  me  been  written 
in  the  forenoon,  it  might  nearly  have  coincided  in  time  with  my 
dream,  if  allowance  be  made  for  the  difference  of  time  between 
Greenwich  and  Naples  ;  for,  having  no  recollection  of  the  dream 
when  I  woke,  according  to  custom,  at  an  early  hour  on  the 
morning  of  the  2ist,  I  presume  I  must  have  dreamt  it  very 
little  before  eight  o'clock,  the  hour  at  which  I  was  called, 

"  I  may  add  that,  notwithstanding  an  absence  of  twelve  years 
and  a  half,  my  brother  has  altered  very  little  in  appearance ; 
and  that  I  have  not  to  my  knowledge  ever  noted  a  dream  before 
in  my  life." 

On  April  I2th,  1888,  Mr.  Gurney  inspected  the 
diary  with  the  entry  (X,  Clem)  under  Tuesday,  March 
20th,  1888,  though,  as  Mr.  Hamilton  explained,  "it 
was  early  the  next  morning  that  I  had  the  dream,  for 
I  generally  consider  all  that  appertains  to  bed  relates 
to  the  day  on  which  one  gets  into  it." 

Mr.  Gurney  also  saw  the  letter  signed  Clement  E. 
Hamilton,  and  dated  Naples,  March  2ist,  1888,  which 
says  "  am  suffering  from  very  severe  attack  of  gout  in 
left  arm.'1 


502  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TkANSFERENCE. 

The  next  case  presents  several  points  of  interest. 
In  part,  at  least,  it  seems  to  have  been  a  waking 
experience,  possibly  the  prolongation  of  a  dream.  In 
this  respect  it  resembles  Mrs.  Harrison's  case,  already 
cited  (No.  54),  and  if  correctly  described,  the  incident 
possesses  therefore  a  higher  evidential  value  than  a 
mere  dream,  however  vivid.  I  have  here  classed  it 
as  a  dream,  however,  because  the  percipient  himself  so 
describes  it  in  his  letter  written  a  few  days  after  the 
experience.  The  utterance  of  words  by  the  percipient 
finds  a  parallel  in  the  case  of  Archdeacon  Bruce 
(Chapter  VII.,  No.  51).  But  in  the  present  case 
there  is  the  additional  feature  that  the  percipient  is 
conscious  not  only  of  the  sound  of  his  own  voice,  but 
of  another  voice  in  reply.  The  incident,  it  will  be 
seen,  though  remote,  is  attested  by  letters  written 
immediately  after  the  event,  and  by  the  percipient's 
recollection  of  action  taken  in  consequence  of  the 
dream-warning. 

No.  59.— From  MR.   EDWARD  A.  GOODALL,  of  the 
Royal  Society  of  Painters  in  Water-Colours. 

"May,  1888. 

"At  Midsummer,  1869,  I  left  London  for  Naples,  The  he.it 
being  excessive,  people  were  leaving  for  Ischia,  and  I  thought 
it  best  to  go  there  myself. 

"  Crossing  by  steamer,  I  slept  one  night  at  Casamicciola,  on 
the  coast,  and  walked  next  morning  into  the  town  of  Ischia 
[Mr.  Goodall  then  describes  an  accident  to  his  hand,  which 
prevented  him  from  sketching.] 

"  It  must  have  been  on  my  third  or  fourth  night,  and  about 
the  middle  of  it,  when  I  awoke,  as  it  seemed,  at  the  sound  of  my 
own  voice,  saying :  1 1  know  I  have  lost  my  dearest  little  May.' 
Another  voice,  which  I  in  no  way  recognised,  answered:  ' No^ 
not  May,  but  yaux  youngest  boy} 

"The  distinctness  and  solemnity  of  the  voice  made  such 
a  distressing  impression  upon  me  that  I  slept  no  more.  I  got 
up  at  daybreak,  and  went  out,  noticing  for  the  first  time 
telegraph-poles  and  wires. 

"Without  delay  I  communicated  with  the  postmaster  at 
Naples,  and  by  next  boat  received  two  letters  from  home.  I 
opened  them  according  to  dates  outside.  The  first  told  me  that 


COINCIDENT  t)REAMS.  203 

my  youngest  boy  was  taken  suddenly  ill ;  the  second,  that  he 
was  dead. 

"  Neither  on  his  account  nor  on  that  of  any  of  my  family  had 
I  any  cause  for  uneasiness.  All  were  quite  well  on  my  taking 
leave  of  them  so  lately.  My  impression  ever  since  has  been 
that  the  time  of  the  death  coincided  as  nearly  as  we  could  judge 
with  the  time  of  my  accident. 

"  In  writing  to  Mrs.  Goodall,  I  called  the  incident  of  the  voice 
a  dream,  as  less  likely  perhaps  to  disturb  her  than  the  details 
which  I  gave  on  reaching  home,  and  which  I  have  now  repeated. 

"My  letters  happen  to  have  been  preserved. 

"  I  have  never  had  any  hallucination  of  any  kind,  nor  am 
I  in  the  habit  of  talking  in  my  sleep.  I  do  remember  once 
waking  with  some  words  of  mere  nonsense  upon  my  lips,  but 
the  experience  of  the  voice  speaking  to  me  was  absolutely 
unique. 

"EDWARD  A.  GOODALL." 

Extracts  from  letters  to  Mrs.  E.  A.  Goodall  from 
Ischia: — 

"WEDNESDAY,  August  nM,  1869. 

"  The  postman  brought  me  two  letters  containing  sad  news 
indeed.  Poor  little  Percy  !  I  dreamt  some  nights  since  the 
poor  little  fellow  was  taken  from  us.  .  .  ." 

"August  itfh. 

"  I  did  not  tell  you,  dear,  the  particulars  of  my  dream  about 
poor  little  Percy. 

"  I  had  been  for  several  days  very  fidgety  and  wretched  at 
getting  no  letters  from  home,  and  had  gone  to  bed  in  worse 
spirits  than  usual,  and  in  my  dream  I  fancied  I  said :  *  I  have 
lost  my  dearest  little  May.'  A  strange  voice  seemed  to  say : 
'No,  not  May,  but  your  youngest  boy/  not  mentioning  his 
name." 

Mr.  Myers  adds  : — 

"  Mr.  Goodali  has  given  me  verbally  a  concordant  account  of 
the  affair,  and  several  members  of  his  family,  who  were  present 
at  our  interview,  recollected  the  strong  impression  made  on  him 
and  them  at  the  time."  * 

In  the  case  which  follows  the  agency  is  difficult 
to  elucidate.  The  persons  who  were  spectators  of 
the  scene  represented  in  the  dream  can  hardly  be 
supposed  to  have  been  acquainted  with  the  dreamer, 

1  Ptoc.  S.r.Rn  vol.  v.  pp.  453-455'* 


204  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

and  assuredly  would  not  willingly  have  revealed  the 
secret  The  dream  appears  to  have  been  of  a  clair- 
voyant character.  The  account  is  taken  from  the 
Proceedings  of  the  Am.  S.P.R.,  pp.  454  et  seq. 

No.  60. — From  MRS.  E.  J. 

"CAMBRIDGE  (U.S.A.),  Nov.  30,  1886. 

"The  dream  I  will  endeavour  to  relate  as  clearly  as  possible. 

"  It  occurred  during  the  month  of  August,  last  summer,  while 
we  were  boarding  with  Mrs.  H.,  in  Lunenburg,  where  I  first  met 
the  Misses  W.  I  am  a  perfectly  healthy  woman,  and  have 
always  been  sceptical  as  to  hallucinations  in  any  one,  always 
before  having  felt  the  cause  of  the  experience  might  be 
traced. 

"  In  my  dream  I  arrived  unexpectedly  at  the  house  of  the 
Misses  W.,  in  Cambridge,  where  I  found  everything  in  confusion, 
drawers  emptied  and  their  contents  scattered  about  the  floor, 
bundles  unrolled,  and  dresses  taken  down  from  the  closets. 
Then,  as  I  stepped  into  one  room,  I  saw  some  boys  in  bed, — 
three  or  four,  I  cannot  distinctly  remember.  I  saw  their  faces 
distinctly,  as  they  sat  up  in  bed  at  my  approach,  but  the  recollec- 
tion of  their  faces  has  faded  from  me  now.  I  could  not  reach 
the  boys,  for  they  disappeared  suddenly,  and  I  could  not  find 
them  ;  but  I  thought,  These  cannot  be  the  people  whom  the 
Misses  W.  trusted  to  care  for  their  house  in  their  absence  ;  and  I 
was  troubled  to  know  whether  it  was  best  to  tell  them  when  I 
should  return  to  Lunenburg.  This  is  all  there  was  in  the 
dream. 

"  Thinking  only  to  amuse  them,  I  related  my  dream  at  the 
breakfast-table  the  following  morning,  and  I  regretted  doing  so 
immediately,  for  anxiety  showed  itself  in  their  faces,  and  the 
elder  Miss  W.  remarked  that  she  hoped  my  dream  was  not  a 
forerunner  of  bad  tidings  from  home.  I  laughed  at  the  idea, 
but  that  morning  the  mail  brought  a  letter  telling  them  that 
their  house  had  been  entered,  and  when  they  went  down  they 
found  almost  the  same  confusion  of  which  I  had  been  a  witness 
the  night  before — with  everything  strewn  about  the  floor.  It 
was  a  singular  coincidence,  surely." 

Miss  W.  writes  : — 

"  7 STREET,  Dec.  4. 

"  I  am  not  quite  sure  whether  the  incident  to  which  you 
allude  in  your  note  is  worthy  your  attention  or  not,  but  I  will 
give  you  the  facts,  that  you  may  judge  for  yourself  of  its  value. 


COINCIDENT  DREAMS.  2OJ 

"  The  burglary,  we  suppose,  took  place  on  the  night  of  the 
1 7th  or  1 8th  of  August,  I  being  at  the  time,  for  the  summer,  in 
the  town  of  Lunenburg,  Mass. 

"Coming  down  to  breakfast  on  the  morning  of  the  I7th,  a 
lady  said  to  me  that  she  had  had  a  strange  dream.  She  thought 
she  went  to  our  house,  finding  it  in  the  greatest  confusion, 
everything  turned  upside-down.  As  she  entered  one  of  the 
sleeping-rooms  she  saw  two  boys  lying  in  the  bed  ;  but  she 
could  not  see  their  faces,  for  as  soon  as  they  saw  her  they 
jumped  up  and  ran  off.  I  said,  '  I  hope  that  does  not  mean  that 
we  have  been  visited  by  burglars.' 

"  I  thought  no  more  about  it,  till  the  eleven  o'clock  mail 
brought  a  note  from  the  woman  in  charge  of  the  house  saying 
that  it  had  been  entered, — that  everything  was  in  great  con- 
fusion, many  things  carried  off,  and  she  wished  we  would  come 
home  at  once.  The  policeman  who  went  over  the  house  with 
her  said  he  had  never  seen  a  house  more  thoroughly  ransacked. 

"  We  found  that  in  the  upper  attic  room  the  bed  had  evidently 
been  used,  and  there  was,  perhaps,  more  confusion  in  this  room 
than  in  any  other. 

"The  lady  who  had  the  dream  was  Mrs.  E.  J.,  of  Cambridge- 
port.  I  was  told  that  she  had  been  suffering  for  about  a  year 
from  nervous  prostration,  and  she  was  evidently  in  a  condition 
of  great  nervous  excitement. 

"  I  forbore  to  speak  to  her  of  the  occurrence,  as  one  of  the 
ladies  in  the  house  told  me  that  it  had  made  an  unpleasant  im- 
pression on  her  mind. 

"  The  whole  thing  seems  rather  curious  to  me,  but  I  do  not 
know  that  you  will  find  it  of  any  value  in  your  investigations." 

A  dream  presenting  similar  features  is  recorded  in 
the  Journal of  'the  S.P.R.  for  June  1890.  Mr.  William 
Bass,  farm  bailiff  to  Mrs.  Palmer,  of  Tumours  Hall, 
Chigwell,  on  Good  Friday,  1884,  "awoke  in  violent 
agitation  and  profuse  perspiration "  from  a  dream 
that  something  was  wrong  at  the  stables.  He  was  at 
first  dissuaded  by  his  wife  from  paying  any  attention 
to  the  dream,  but  subsequently,  at  about  2  A.M.,  dressed 
and  proceeded  to  the  stables  (a  third  of  a  mile  off)  to 
find  that  a  mare  had  been  stolen.  The  case  has  been 
investigated  by  Mr.  T.  Barkworth,  of  West  Hatch, 
Chigwell,  and  by  Mr.  J.  B.  Surgey,  of  22  Holland 
Street,  Kensington.  In  a  dream  recorded  in  Phan* 
tasms  of  the  Living  (vol.  if  p.  369),  Miss  Busk,  of  16 


206  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

Montagu  Street,  W,,  dreamt  that  in  a  spot  in  Kent 
well  known  to  her  she  stumbled  over  "the  heads, 
left  protruding,  of  some  ducks  buried  in  the  sand, 
under  some  firs."  The  dream  was  mentioned  at 
breakfast  to  Miss  Busk's  sister,  Mrs.  Pitt  Byrne,  and 
an  hour  later  the  ladies  learnt  from  their  bailiff  that 
some  stolen  ducks  had  accidentally  been  found  buried 
on  the  spot  and  in  the  manner  described. 


207 


CHAPTER  IX. 

ON    HALLUCINATION    IN    GENERAL. 

BEFORE  proceeding,  in  the  chapters  which  follow,  to 
cite  instances  of  hallucinations  which  purport  to  have 
been  telepathically  originated,  it  seems  needful  to 
glance  briefly  at  sensory  hallucination  in  general.  To 
most  persons,  no  doubt,  the  word  connotes  disease. 
Their  ideas  of  hallucination  are  probably  derived 
from  vague  reports  of  asylum  experience  and  delirium 
tremens;  or  at  least  from  the  cases  of  Goethe's  butt, 
Nicolai,  the  Berlin  bookseller,  and  the  Mrs.  A.  whose 
experiences  are  described  in  Brewster's  Letters  on 
Natural  Magic,  both  of  whom  are  known  to  have 
been  under  medical  treatment  for  illness  of  which 
the  hallucinations  were  regarded  as  a  symptom. 
Indeed,  until  recent  years  the  tendency  of  even  well- 
instructed  opinion  has  been  to  regard  a  sensory 
hallucination  as  necessarily  implying  some  physical 
or  mental  disorder.  This  misconception — for  it  is  a 
misconception — has  had  some  curious  consequences. 
Since  it  does  occasionally  happen  that  a  person 
admittedly  sane  and  healthy  reports  to  have  seen  the 
likeness  of  a  human  figure  in  what  was  apparently 
empty  space,  such  reports  have  been  by  some  perforce 
scouted  as  unworthy  of  credence,  and  by  others 
regarded  as  necessarily  indicating  some  occult  cause 
— as  testifying,  in  short,  to  the  agency  of  "  ghosts." 
There  was  indeed  the  analogy  of  dreams  to  guide  us. 
Few  educated  persons  would  regard  dreams,  on  the 


208  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE, 

one  hand,  as  a  symptom  of  ill-health,  or  on  the  other 
as  counterparts  or  revelations  of  any  super-terrestrial 
world  ;  or,  indeed,  as  anything  else  than  purely  sub- 
jective mental  images.  Yet  dreams  belong  to  the 
same  order  of  mental  phenomena  as  hallucinations, 
and  are  commonly  so  classed — such  differences  as 
exist  being  mainly  due  to  the  conditions  under  which 
the  two  sets  of  phenomena  respectively  occur.  In 
fact,  a  hallucination  is  simply  a  hypertrophied  thought 
— the  last  member  of  a  series,  whose  intermediate 
terms  are  to  be  found  in  the  mind's-eye  pictures  of 
ordinary  life,  in  the  vivid  images  which  some  artists 
can  summon  at  will,  and  in  the  Faces  in  the  Dark 
which  many  persons  see  before  passing  into  sleep, 
with  its  more  familiar  and  abundant  imagery. 

Of  recent  years,  however,  our  knowledge  of  hallu- 
cinations has  been  largely  augmented  from  two  dis- 
tinct sources.  On  the  one  hand,  a  systematic  attempt 
has  been  made  to  study  the  spontaneous  non-recurrent 
hallucinations  occurring  amongst  normal  persons  ;  on 
the  other  hand,  wider  knowledge  of  hypnotism  and  the 
discovery  of  various  processes  for  inducing  hallucina- 
tions has  afforded  facilities  for  the  experimental  in- 
vestigation of  their  nature,  mechanism,  and  genesis, 
both  in  the  trance  and  in  waking  life.  The  hallucina- 
tions, indeed,  of  the  ordinary  hypnotic  subject,  with 
which  the  public  has  been  familiarised  by  platform 
demonstrations,  are  possibly  not  sensory  at  all.  When 
a  hypnotised  lad  eats  tallow-candle  for  sponge-cake, 
drinks  ink  for  champagne,  or  professes  to  see  a 
lighted  candle  at  the  end  of  the  operator's  finger,  we 
may  conclude,  if  the  performance  is  a  genuine  one, 
that  a  false  belief  has  been  engendered  in  his  mind  ; 
but  we  have,  in  most  cases,  no  evidence  that  this 
belief  includes  any  sensory  element.  In  many  labor- 
atory experiments,  however,  there  can  be  little  ques- 
tion that  a  complete  sensory  hallucination  is  induced, 
and  that  what  the  subject  professers  to  see  and  hear  is 
as  real  to  him  as  the  furniture  or  the  person  of  the 


ON   HALLUCINATION   IN   GENERAL.  2Op 

operator.  One  or  two  such  cases  have  been  quoted 
in  a  previous  chapter  (Chap.  III.,  p.  68).  The  nature 
and  reaction  of  these  hypnotic  hallucinations  have 
been  investigated  with  much  ingenuity  by  various 
Continental  observers.1  MM.  Binet  and  F£re\  to 
quote  the  best-known  scries  of  experiments,  have 
found,  speaking  generally,  that  the  hallucinatory  per- 
cept behaves  under  various  conditions  precisely  as  if 
it  were  a  real  percept.  Thus,  if  the  subject  is  told  to 
see  a  picture  on  a  blank  card,  he  will  not  only  see  the 
picture  at  the  time,  but  he  will  be  able  subsequently 
to  pick  out  the  card,  recognising  it  by  means  of  the 
hallucinatory  picture  impressed  on  it,  from  a  number 
of  similar  cards.  If  the  card  is  inverted,  he  will  see 
the  picture  upside-down ;  if  a  magnifying  glass  is 
interposed,  he  will  see  the  picture  enlarged  ;  viewed 
through  a  prism,  it  will  appear  doubled  ;  it  will  be 
reflected  in  a  mirror  ;  and  if  the  hallucinatory  image 
consists  of  written  or  printed  words,  he  will  see  the 
writing  in  the  mirror  inverted.  Hallucinatory  colours 
will  develop  after-images  of  the  complementary  colour, 
precisely  as  if  coloured  surfaces  were  actually  present 
to  the  eyes  of  the  hallucind ;  and  a  mixture  of  these 
hallucinatory  colours  will  produce  the  appropriate 
third  colour.  If  other  proof  were  needed  of  the 
sensory  nature  of  the  induced  affection,  MM.  Binet 
and  F£re*  find  it  in  the  observation  that  with  cataleptic 
subjects  who  have  lost  the  sensitiveness  of  the  cornea 
and  conjunctiva,  this  sensitiveness  is  restored  when  a 
visual  hallucination  is  enjoined  upon  them.  M.  Pierre 
Janet,  in  L! Autoyiatisme  Psychologique,  has  recorded 
a  similar  restoration  of  sensitiveness  in  a  subject's 
arm  by  the  imposition  of  a  tactile  hallucination. 

It  is  right  to  point  out  that  these  experiments, 
by  the  authors'  admission,  succeed  only  occasionally, 
and  that  many  of  them  have  not  yet  been  confirmed 
by  other  observers.  In  fact,  according  to  the  evidence 

1  See  Animal  Magmtisn^  by  Binet  and  Fe*re*,  in  the  International 
Science  Series,  and  the  references  there  given. 

14 


210  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

collected  by  the  S.P.R.,  the  results  of  applying  such 
optical  tests  differ  with  each  individual.  Thus  Mr. 
Myers  succeeded  by  post-hypnotic  suggestion  in  in- 
ducing two  young  men  to  see  hallucinatory  images 
in  the  crystal  enlarged  by  the  application  of  a  magni- 
fying glass  (S.P.R.,  viii.  462,  463),  and  Miss  X.  (id.,  pp. 
485,  486)  reports  that  she  sees  hallucinatory  pictures 
distorted  in  a  spoon,  reversed  in  a  mirror,  enlarged 
by  a  magnifying  glass,  and  doubly  refracted  by  Ice- 
land spar.  She  believes  herself  also  to  have  experi- 
enced complementary  colours  as  the  result  of  pro- 
longed looking  at  a  hallucinatory  picture.  But  Mrs. 
Verrall  (id.,  p,  474)  finds  the  crystal  pictures  vanish 
when  the  magnifying  glass  is  applied  ;  and  Miss  A. 
(id.,  p.  500)  finds  that  the  superimposition  of  a  magni- 
fying glass  does  not  affect  the  picture.  In  all  these 
cases,  it  should  be  noted,  the  percipients  were  in  their 
normal  condition,  and  were  more  or  less  familiar 
with  the  nature  of  the  optical  effects  following  under 
similar  circumstances  with  real  percepts. 

MM.  Binet  and  F£r£  suppose  that  the  appropriate 
reaction  of  the  hallucinatory  picture  to  the  various 
tests  described  is  due  to  the  hallucination  being  built 
up  round  a  fragment  of  actual  percept,  such  as  a  mark 
on  a  card,  which  would  conform  to  ordinary  optical 
laws.  This  imaginary  nucleus  they  name  the  point 
de  repere.  It  is  not  improbable  that  in  some  cases 
this  may  be  the  true  explanation.  But  experience 
leads  us  to  infer  that  suggestion  would  be  competent 
to  produce  all  the  observed  effects  in  cases  where  the 
subject,  either  from  previous  knowledge  of  the  instru- 
ment or  process,  from  the  behaviour  of  the  investi- 
gators, or  from  his  own  observations  at  the  time,  was 
aware  of  the  nature  of  the  effect  to  be  expected.  And 
it  is  not  clear  that  MM.  Binet  and  F£r£,  and  other  in- 
vestigators of  this  school,  have  been  sufficiently  on  their 
guard  against  the  abnormal  receptivity  of  the  hypno- 
tised subjects  with  whom  they  have  for  the  most  part 
experimented.  Miss  X,,  it  may  be  remarked,  pro- 


ON   HALLUCINATION   IN   GENERAL.  21 1 

fesses  herself  uncertain  whether  or  not  to  ascribe 
the  results  which  she  has  recorded  to  self-suggestion. 
But  to  choose  between  these  alternative  explanations 
is  not  important  for  our  present  purpose.  To  what- 
ever cause  we  may  attribute  the  results  observed, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  either  of  the  sense  of  reality 
conveyed  by  the  false  percept,  or  of  its  appropriate 
behaviour  under  favourable  conditions. 

An  instance  may  be  quoted  in  detail  which 
illustrates  at  once  the  apparent  attachment  of  the 
hallucination  to  an  external  object,  and  its  successful 
competition  with  the  impressions  of  waking  life.  A 
lady  of  my  acquaintance,  Sister  L.,  was  put  into  the 
hypnotic  state  by  Mr.  G.  A.  Smith  in  the  spring  of 
1892.  Whilst  she  was  entranced,  Mr.  Smith,  at  my 
request,  handed  to  her  several  blank  cards,  and  told 
her  that  one  of  them  (which  had  been  privately 
marked  on  the  back)  bore  a  portrait  of  himself,  and 
that  she  was  to  look  at  it  ten  minutes  after  waking. 
A  few  minutes  later,  when  engaged  in  conversation 
and  apparently  completely  awake,  Sister  L.  picked 
out  the  card  in  question  from  the  little  heap  of  similar 
cards  and  showed  it  to  me,  remarking  that  it  was  an 
excellent  likeness.  Some  half-hour  later,  when  Sister 
L.  was  about  to  take  her  departure,  I  handed  her  the 
card  and  said  that  Mr.  Smith  would  be  glad  if  she 
would  accept  the  photograph.  She  looked  at  the 
card,  expressed  her  thanks  for  the  gift,  and  placed  it 
in  her  pocket  When  I  met  her  a  few  days  later  I 
learnt  that  on  her  arrival  at  home  she  had  searched 
in  her  pocket  for  the  photograph,  and  had  been  much 
surprised  to  find  there  only  a  blank  card.  In  this 
instance  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  a  complete 
sensory  hallucination  was  induced,  and  that  it  per- 
sisted, or  was  capable  of  being  revived,  for  some  30 
minutes  or  more  after  the  original  impression  had 
been  established. 

This  last  example,  Jt  will  be  seen,  belongs  to  the 
important  class  of  post-hypnotic  hallucinations — i.e., 


212  APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

hallucinations  enjoined  on  the  subject  in  the  hypnotic 
state,  but  realised  only  after  waking,  Special  interest 
attaches  to  hallucinations  of  this  kind,  because  the 
subject  is  in  a  condition  which,  if  not  fully  normal, 
at  least  approaches  in  some  cases  very  nearly  to  the 
normal,  and  is  thus  able  to  observe  and  describe  his 
own  sensations  with  care.1 

A  more  striking-  form  of  the  same  experiment,  the 
post-hypnotic  production  of  a  completely  developed 
hallucination  of  the  human  figure,  has  been  practised 
by  Bernheim,2  Beaunis,3  Liegeois,4  and  others.  Thus 
M.  Liegeois,  on  the  I2th  October  1885,  told  a  hypno- 
tised subject  that  on  the  I2th  October  of  the  year 
following  he  would  go  to  Dr.  Liebeault's  house,  where 
he  would  also  see  M.  Liegeois,  and  would  thank  them 
both  for  the  good  done  to  his  eyes.  He  would  then 
see  a  performing  dog  and  monkey  enter  the  consult- 
ing room,  where  they  would  perform  many  amusing 
tricks;  ultimately  he  would  see  a  gipsy  enter  with  a 

1  In  many  cases  the  post-hypnotic  performance  of  an  enjoined  action, 
or  the  experience  of  a  post-hypnotic  hallucination,  is  associated  with  the 
partial  recurrence  of  the  hypnotic  trance,  or  of  some  condition  closely 
allied  to  it.     Mr.  Edmund  Gurney  has  carefully  investigated  the  ques- 
tion (Proc.  S.P.R.,  iv.  pp.  268-323.     See  also  Delboeuf's  article  there 
quoted,  "De  la  pretendue  Veille  Somnambulique,"  Rev.  PJri/.t  Feb. 
1887),  and  has  shown  that,  with  some  subjects,  during  the  performance 
of  the  enjoined  action  a  further  command  can  be  given,  or  a  further 
hallucination  imposed,  and  that  the  whole  incident  will  have  passed 
from  memory  a  few  seconds  later.     In  the  case  of  some  persons  hypno- 
tised by  Dr.  Bramwell,  and  bidden  to  see  after  waking  an  imaginary 
scene  in  a  crystal,  I  have  myself  observed  that  they  retained  no  recol- 
lection a  few  minutes  later  of  the  scene  which  they  had  been  describ- 
ing; and  in  at  least  one  case  the  subject  at  the  time  of  the  hallucin- 
ation was  apparently  insensible  to  pain.     On  the  other  hand,  as  Mr. 
Gurney  has  pointed  out  (he.  cit.t  p.  270),  "there  are  some  cases  in 
which  no  reason  whatever  appears  for  regarding  the  state  in  which 
the  action  is  performed  as  other  than  normal,"  and  the  same  remark 
apparently  holds  good  of  post-hypnotic  hallucinations.     And  there  are 
many  persons  who  can  see  hallucinatory  pictures  in  a  crystal,  a  glass 
of  water,  etc.,  when  in  full  health  and  in  a  perfectly  normal  condition. 
See  Mr,  Myers*  article  already  referred  to  (S.P.R.,  vol.  viii.). 

2  De  la  Suggestion,  p.  29. 

*  La  SoMitambulisme  provoqut,  p.  233. 

4  Rev.  de  PHypnotisme,  November  1886,  p.  148. 


ON   HALLUCINATION   IN    GENERAL.  213 

bear,  to  reclaim  the  dog  and  monkey,  and  would 
borrow  two  sous  from  M.  Liegeois  to  give  to  the 
gipsy.  On  the  I2th  October  1886  the  subject 
entered  Dr.  Liefbeault's  consulting  room  and  thanked 
him  and  M.  Liegeois  as  arranged  He  then  saw  a 
dog  and  monkey  enter  the  room,  and  ultimately  a 
gipsy.  The  bear  he  did  not  see,  and  the  two  sous, 
which  were  duly  borrowed,  he  handed  to  the  imagin- 
ary dog.  With  these  exceptions  the  hallucinations 
enjoined  a  year  before  were  exactly  realised.  Some 
experiments  of  a  similar  nature  are  recorded  by  Mr. 
Gurney  (Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  v.  pp.  11-13).  The  subject 
was  a  servant  named  Zillah,  in  the  service  of  Mrs. 
Ellis,  of  40  Keppel  Street,  Russell  Square.  In  the 
first  two  experiments  Zillah  was  told  in  the  trance 
that  at  a  certain  hour  on  the  following  day  she  would 
see  Mr.  G.  A.  Smith.  In  each  case  the  experiment 
succeeded. 

The  third  and  last  experiment  with  this  "subject"  was  made 
on  Wednesday  evening,  July  I3th,  1887.  On  this  occasion  S. 
told  her,  when  hypnotised,  that  the  next  afternoon  at  three 
o'clock  she  would  see  me  come  into  the  room  to  her.  She  was 
further  told  that  I  would  keep  my  hat  on,  and  would  say,  "  Good 
afternoon  ;"  that  I  would  further  remark,  "It  is  very  warm  ;" 
and  would  then  turn  round  and  walk  out.  These  hallucinations 
were  suggested  in  another  room,  where  Zillah  was  taken  for  the 
purpose,  and  neither  Mrs.  Ellis  nor  any  other  person,  except  S. 
and  myself,  knew  their  nature.  Zillah,  as  usual,  knew  nothing 
about  them  on  waking.  On  the  second  day  after,  the  following 
letter  was  received  from  Mrs.  Ellis:— 

"40  KEPPEL  STRKET,  RUSSELL  SQUARE,  W.C., 

July  itfh. 

"  DEAR  MR.  SMITH,— Mr.  Gurney  did  not  ask  me  to  write 
in  case  there  was  anything  to  communicate  with  respect  to 
Zillah,  but  as  I  suppose  you  gave  her  a  post-hypnotic  hallucina- 
tion, probably  you  will  wish  to  hear  of  it.  I  will  give  you  the 
story  in  her  own  words,  as  I  jotted  them  down  immediately 
afterwards— saying  nothing  to  her,  of  course,  of  my  doing  so. 
She  said  :  *  I  was  ip  the  kitchen  washing  up,  and  had  just 
looked  at  the  clock,  andnvas  startled  to  see  how  late  it  was — 
five  minutes  to  three— when  I  heard  footsteps  coming  down  the 


214  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

stairs— rather  a  quick,  light  step— and  I  thought  it  was  Mr. 
Sleep '  (the  dentist  whose  rooms  are  in  the  house),  *  but  as  I 
turned  round,  with  a  dish  mop  in  one  hand  and  a  plate  in  the 
other,  I  saw  some  one  with  a  hat  on,  who  had  to  stoop  as  he 
came  down  the  last  step,  and  there  was  Mr.  Gurney  1  He  was 
dressed  just  as  I  saw  him  last  night,  black  coat  and  grey 
trousers,  his  hat  on,  and  a  roll  of  paper,  like  manuscript,  in  his 
hand,  and  he  said,  '  Oh,  good  afternoon.'  And  then  he  glanced 
all  round  the  kitchen,  and  he  glared  at  me  with  an  awful  look, 
as  if  he  was  going  to  murder  me,  and  said,  *  Warm  afternoon, 
isn't  it?'  and  then,  'Good  afternoon'  or  'Good  day,'  I'm  not 
sure  which,  and  turned  and  went  up  the  stairs  again,  and  after 
standing  thunderstruck  a  minute,  I  ran  to  the  foot  of  the  stairs, 
and  saw  like  a  boot  just  disappearing  on  the  top  step.'  She 
said,  '  I  think  I  must  be  going  crazy.  Why  should  I  always  see 
something  at  three  o'clock  each  day  after  the  stance  ?  But  I 
am  not  nearly  so  frightened  as  I  was  at  seeing  Mr.  Smith.' 
She  seemed  particularly  impressed  by  the  'awful  look'  Mr. 
Gurney  gave  her.  I  presume  this  was  the  hallucination  you 
gave  her. 

"AMELIA  A.  ELLIS.* 

It  is  important  to  note  that  in  cases  of  this  kind 
there  is  no  discoverable  point  de  repbre,  at  least  in  the 
sense  in  which  the  phrase  is  understood  by  its  authors; 
and  the  nature  of  the  effect  produced — a  moving 
figure,  apparently  occupying  a  position  in  solid  space 
— makes  it  very  difficult  to  suppose  that  the  hallu- 
cination is  attached  to  any  external  object,  which 
must  necessarily  be  fixed.  But  the  whole  discussion 
about  the  necessity  of  external  excitation  or  of  points 
de  rep&re  seems  beside  the  mark  in  such  cases  as 
these.  For  there  can  be  no  question  that  what  in  the 
first  instance  excites  the  hallucination  is  not  a  present 
sensation,  but  a  memory.  Whether  for  the  full  de- 
velopment of  a  sensory  hallucination  some  external 
stimulus  to  the  sense-organ  is  necessary  is  here  a 
question  of  quite  minor  importance.  The  really 
interesting  fact  in  its  bearing  on  the  question  of 
telepathic  hallucination  is  that  some  hallucinations 
are  shown  to  be  centrally,  not  peripherally,  initiated. 
It  should  be  further  remarked  that  Zillah's  astonish- 
ment at  seeing  the  figure  is  typical,  since  in  the  case 


ON    HALLUCINATION    IN   GENERAL.  21 5 

of  post-hypnotic  hallucinations  in  general  neither  the 
injunction  to  see  the  figure,  nor  indeed  any  other 
incident  of  his  trance  life,  is  remembered  by  the  per- 
cipient in  the  normal  state ;  and  he  is  therefore 
entirely  ignorant  of  the  chain  of  events  which  led  up 
to  the  hallucination,  and  can  only  by  inquiry  and 
reflection  ascertain  that  the  apparition  which  he  has 
seen  is  of  his  own  manufacture. 

From  these  experimental  cases  we  may  pass  to 
the  consideration  of  spontaneous  hallucinations,  and 
amongst  them  to  that  class  with  which  we  are  more 
directly  concerned,  the  occasional  hallucinations  of 
sane  and  healthy  persons.  Owing,  amongst  other 
causes,  to  their  comparative  infrequency,  and  to  the 
difficulty  of  obtaining  accurate  contemporary  records 
(since  their  occurrence  cannot,  as  in  the  hallucinations 
of  disease,  be  foreseen),  phenomena  of  this  class  have 
hitherto  attracted  little  attention  amongst  psycholo- 
gists.1 Mr.  Edmund  Gurney,  however,  in  1884  and 
onwards  conducted  an  inquiry,  by  means  of  a  printed 
schedule  of  questions,  amongst  a  circle  of  some  6000 
persons  ;  and  during  the  last  four  years,  at  the  request 
of  the  Congress  of  Experimental  Psychology  which 
met  at  Paris  in  1889,  Professor  Henry  Sidgwick,  with 
the  aid  of  a  Committee  of  members  of  the  S.P.R.,  has 
carried  on  a  similar  investigation  on  a  larger  scale. 
17,000  adult  persons,  for  the  most  part  resident  in  the 
United  Kingdom,  have  been  questioned  as  to  their 
experience  of  sensory  hallucinations.2  In  the  result  it 

1  Professor  Sully,  to  quote  a  recent  instance,  in  his  work  on 
Illusions  in  the  International  Scientific  Series  (ed.  1887),  devotes  less 
than  a  page  and  a  half  to  the  discussion  of  the  sensory  hallucinations  of 
normal  life,  and  sums  up  the  subject  by  saying  that  "  when  not  brought 
on  by  exhaustion  or  artificial  means,  the  hallucinations  of  the  sane  have 
their  origin  in  a  preternatural  power  of  imagination  "  (p.  117). 

a  The  question,  which  was  worded  as  follows: — Have  you  ever, 
when  believing  yourself  to  be  completely  awake,  had  a  vivid  impression 
of  seeing,  or  being  touched  by  a  living  being  or  inanimate  object,  or  of 
hearing  a  voice,  which  impression,  so  far  as  you  tould  discover,  was  not 
due  to  any  external  physical  cause? — was  printed  at  the  top  of  a 
schedule  containing  twenty-five  spaces  for  the  names  and  other  par 


2 16  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

appeared  that  1684  out  of  17,000,  or  9.9  per  cent. — to 
wit,  655  out  of  8372  men,  and  1029  out  of  8628  women 
— had  experienced  a  sensory  hallucination  at  some 
time  in  their  lives.  In  about  one-third  of  the  cases  the 
percipient  had  more  than  one  experience  of  the  kind. 
The  phenomenon,  therefore,  though  not  so  common 
as  dreaming,  is  less  rare  than  is  generally  supposed, 
seeing  that  about  one  in  every  ten  educated  persons 
has  such  an  experience  in  the  course  of  his  life.  The 
inquiries  of  the  Committee  have  revealed  no  general 
cause  for  the  greater  number  of  these  isolated  hallu- 
cinations. In  a  small  proportion  of  the  cases  there 
was  a  slight  degree  of  ill-health,  and  in  a  rather 
greater  number  there  was  a  certain  amount  of  anxiety 
or  other  emotional  excitement,  to  which  the  hallu- 
cinatory experience  might  with  some  plausibility  be 
attributed.1  But  in  the  great  majority  of  the  cases 
there  was  no  obvious  antecedent  to  be  discovered 
either  in  the  condition  of  the  percipient  or  in  the 
surrounding  circumstances,  and  we  are  led  to  the 
conclusion  that  an  isolated  hallucination  of  this  kind 
is  as  little  incompatible  with  ordinary  health  as  a 
blush  or  a  hiccough.  At  the  same  time  we  are 
entitled  to  infer,  from  the  relatively  large  proportion 
of  cases  occurring  when  the  percipient  is  in  bed,  or 
alone,  that  quiescence  and  freedom  from  external 
stimuli  are  favourable  conditions  for  the  genesis  of 


ticulars  of  those  answering.  Collectors  were  instructed  not  to  select 
those  of  whom  the  question  was  asked ;  and  to  record  alike  negative 
and  affirmative  answers.  In  the  case  of  an  affirmative  answer  being 
received,  further  particulars  were  sought.  For  a  full  discussion  of  the 
various  sources  of  error  incident  to  an  inquiry  of  this  nature,  and  the 
precautions  taken  to  avoid  them,  and  for  details  of  the  results 
obtained,  the  reader  is  referred  to  the  Report  of  the  Committee,  pre- 
sented in  a  condensed  form  to  the  Congress  of  Experimental  Psychology 
which  met  in  London  in  1892,  and  to  be  published  in  full  in  the 
Proc.  S.P.Jt.,  vol.  x.,  part  26  (forthcoming). 

1  There  was  ill-health  alone  in  about  5  per  cent.,  anxiety  alone  in 
about  ii  per  cent.,  and  both  ill-health  ancji  anxiety  in  about  1.7  per 
cent,  of  first-hand  cases* 


ON    HALLUCINATION   IN   GENERAL.  2I/ 

hallucinations.1  They  may,  in  short,  be  regarded  as 
unusually  vivid  dreams,  and  have  for  the  most  part 
just  so  much  interest  and  significance.  The  nature 
and  variety  of  these  casual  hallucinations  may  be 
gathered  from  the  table  on  the  following  page. 

If  we  turn  to  the  mechanism  of  hallucinations,  we 
shall  find  that — like  dreams — some  are  apparently 
originated  by  the  condition  of  the  bodily  organs ; 
others  again  appear  to  be  mere  automatic  reverbera- 
tions of  recent  sensation  ;  whilst  yet  others  cannot 
be  referred  to  any  immediate  external  stimulus,  and 
suggest  the  "spontaneous"  activity  of  the  higher 
cerebral  centres.  With  the  rudimentary  hallucina- 
tions— singing  in  the  ears,  sparks  and  flashes  of 
light,  etc. — which  are  caused  by  transient  condi- 
tions of  the  external  organs  of  sense,  we  are  prob- 
ably all  familiar.  But  experience  shows  that  a  small 
nucleus  of  actual  sensation  may  enter  into  more  fully 
developed  hallucinations.  Thus,  to  take  the  simplest 
case,  it  is  known  that  "  sparks "  may  develop  into 
"  Faces  in  the  Dark,"  which  are  themselves  on  the 
border-line  between  mind's-eye  pictures  and  halluci- 
nations. (See  St.  James's  Gazette,  "  Faces  in  the  Dark," 
Feb.  10,  1882,  and  Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  iii.  p.  171.)  And 
in  another  recorded  case  (Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  i.  pp.  102, 
103)  an  artist  was  accustomed  to  see  constantly  at 
his  studio  the  figure  of  a  man,  under  circumstances 
which  strongly  suggest  that  a  point  de  repere  was 
furnished  by  those  floating  motes  in  the  eyeballs 
which  are  liable  momentarily  to  cloud  the  vision 
when  the  position  is  abruptly  changed  after  a  period 
of  immobility.  And  we  find  cases  where  the  con- 
structive impulse  has  so  amplified  and  misinter- 

1  Hallucinations  occurring  in  the  ambiguous  state  between  waking 
and  sleeping  are  called  by  some  writers  hypnagogie.  For  the  purposes 
of  our  investigation,  coincident  hallucinations  occurring  at  times  when 
it  is  doubtful  whether  the  percipient  is  fully  awake,  c.g.>  when  he  is  in 
bed,  are  termed  " borderland.'*  Their  evidential  value  is,  of  course, 
somewhat  less  than  that  of, hallucinations  occurring  when  the  percipient 
is  unquestionably  &wake.  (See  cases  57,  59,  65,  66,  etc.> 


218  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 


s    ~ 


•S1Y.IOX 


•saqonoi  jo 
spafqo  e 


•Bluntly 


-uoq  ' 


pins  spifuy 


o  a> 


NH  CO  vO   CO     •- 


i 


ro  ft   t>.  N         I  I          111          I 

N  I  I         I      I      I         I 


1    1 


O   •-•  <p 


.5 

!i 

rt    0) 

>•    _Q 

5-2 

^1 

It 

T3    S 


I? 


.2  a 


•o  53 

a)  a. 


ON   HALLUCINATION    IN   GENERAL. 

preted  the  data  of  normal  sensation  that  we  hardly 
know  whether  to  class  the  result  as  hallucination 
or  illusion.  Thus,  in  a  case  given  in  Phantasms  (vol. 
ii.  p.  28),  a  young  girl  sees  the  face  of  a  friend  grow- 
ing out  of  a  yellow  pansy ;  and  an  account  of  a 
similar  incident  has  recently  been  furnished  to  me 
by  Mr.  H.  Smith,  of  the  Central  Telegraph  Office. 
The  reference  in  the  first  line  of  the  following  narra- 
tive is  to  a  rumour  of  the  house  being  haunted,  the 
remembrance  of  which  possibly  gave  a  definite  form 
to  the  apparition  : — 

"  POST  OFFICE,  yd  Dec.  1892. 

"  I  had  a  turn  last  night,  and  for  the  moment  thought  I  had 
caught  the  spook  of  my  predecessor,  but,  alas !  it  all  ended 
in  smoke  instead  of  spook.  It  gave  me  a  turn,  though,  and 
made  cold  water  run  rippling  down  my  back.  It  happened 
thus: — I  had  paid  a  good-night  visit  to  the  room  of  a  dear 
little  friend,  a  Callithrix  monkey,  whose  lodgings  are  in  a 
side  building  which  has  a  door  opening  into  the  entrance  hall. 
There  was  no  light  in  the  room  of  my  friend,  but  a  side  light 
shone  in  through  the  door  from  the  hall.  (I  was  smoking.) 
On  going  out  I  looked  back  before  shutting  the  door,  and  was 
startled  to  see  just  behind  me,  in  the  dark  shade,  the  face  of  a 
human  being — apparently  an  old  man  with  grey  hair.  The  face 
was  perfectly  distinct  in  every  detail  for  an  appreciable  interval, 
and  the  eyes  seemed  to  look  sadly  at  me,  and  I  looked  sadly  at 
him.  The  face  moved,  and  the  appearance,  though  a  bit  out  of 
shape,  still  remained.  I,  however,  saw  what  it  was,  and  gave  a 
gasp  of  relief  which  blew  the  old  man's  countenance  into  the 
shapelessness  of  the  last  remains  of  an  extra  strong  puff  of 
tobacco  smoke  I  had  left  behind  me." 

Hallucinations  of  this  kind,  whose  origin  we  can 
trace  with  more  or  less  probability  to  some  external 
sensation,  may  be  in  some  respects  compared  with 
the  visions  seen  on  blank  cards  by  the  subjects  of 
MM.  Binet  and  Fere\  But  there  are  other  hallucina- 
tions which  cannot  with  any  plausibility  be  referred 
to  peripheral  excitation.  Such,  as  already  said,  are 
many  hypnotic  hallucinations,  and  the  majority  of 
the  fully-developed  hallucinations  of  normal  life 
would  appear  tq>  fall  under  the  same  category. 
Hallucinations  of  this  class,  like  what  may  be 


22O  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

called  hallucinatory1  dreams,  are  no  doubt  due  to 
the  spontaneous  activity  of  the  higher  cerebral 
centres ;  they  are  simply  ideas  which  take  on  sen- 
sory colouring.  And  just  as  the  hallucinations  of 
hypnotism,  for  the  most  part,  are  due  to  external 
suggestion,  so  it  would  seem  that  amongst  the  cen- 
trally initiated  hallucinations  of  normal  life  there  are 
some  which  owe  their  origin  not  to  the  spontaneous 
activity  of  the  percipient's  brain,  but  to  an  idea  intruded 
from  without — a  suggestion  not  verbal  but  telepathic. 
The  proof  of  this  proposition — the  proof,  that  is, 
of  the  operation  in  certain  cases  of  some  distant 
cause  external  to  the  percipient's  organism — lies  in 
a  numerical  comparison  of  those  hallucinations  which 
coincide  with  an  external  event — e.g.,  the  death  of 
the  person  seen — and  those  which  do  not  For  when 
the  relative  frequency  of  hallucinations  has  been 
ascertained  the  probability  of  chance  coincidence  in 
such  cases  can  be  exactly  calculated.  And  should 
it  appear  that  coincidental  hallucinations  are  more 
frequent  than  chance  would  allow,  it  is  certain  that 
some  other  cause  has  to  be  sought  for.  And  here  we 
are  met  at  the  outset  by  a  serious  difficulty.  It 
would  appear  from  the  results  of  the  census  just 
described  that  hallucinations  even  of  a  vivid  and 
interesting  character  tend  very  quickly  to  be  for- 
gotten. Thus,  to  take  only  the  cases  of  realistic 
apparitions  resembling  a  living  person,  we  find  157 
cases  recorded  as  occurring  during  the  last  ten  years, 
and  only  166  as  occurring  more  than  ten  years  ago ; 
although,  as  the  average  age  of  our  informants  is 
about  40,  we  might  have  anticipated  that  the  latter 
number  would  be  about  three  times  as  great  as  the 
former.2  But  the  discrepancy  becomes  still  more 

1  As  opposed  to  "dream-illusions,"  which  depend  on  various  organic 
sensations,  or  on  the  stimulation  of  the  external  organs  of  sense.  The 
distinction  is  made  by  Professor  Sully,  ice.  at.,  p*  139. 

3  These  figures  do  not  include  second-hand  cases.  There  are  be- 
sides 29  undated  cases,  most  of  which  probably  belong  to  the 
remote  period,  See  column  I  of  table  on  p,  218  (visual  cases). 


ON    HALLUCINATION   IN   GENERAL. 


221 


striking  if  the  figures  are  examined  in  detail. 
The  subjoined  table  gives  the  number  of  appari- 
tions resembling  the  human  form  recorded  for  each 
of  the  last  ten  years  : — 


No.  of  Years  Ago- 

land 
under 

b'tw'n  — 
1  and  2 

2-3 

3-4 

4-5 

5-6 

73 
6 
13 

6-7 

7-8 

8-9 

9-10 

Total. 

Realistic    ^  Living    .    .    . 
Human      VDead      .    .    . 
Apparitions  J  Unrecognised 

35 
12 
17 

19 
10 

1C 

15 
7 
12 

13 
1 

17 

15 
7 
17 

17 
6 
11 

12 
2 
10 

24 

8 
8 
5 

10 
3 

8 

157 
62 
126 

64 

45 

34 

31 

39 

32 

34 

21 

21 

345 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  number  of  hallucinations 
recorded  as  occurring  between  nine  and  ten  years  ago 
is  less  than  one-third  of  the  number  recorded  for  the 
last  twelve  months.  Nay,  if  the  analysis  is  carried 
still  further,  it  is  found  that  within  the  last  year  the 
number  of  hallucinations  remembered  decreases  month 
by  month  as  we  recede  further  from  the  present.  The 
inference  is  irresistible,  that  the  great  majority  even 
of  interesting  hallucinations  do  not  sufficiently  impress 
the  memory  to  be  preserved  for  a  few  years.  After  a 
careful  analysis  of  the  figures  the  Committee  are  of 
opinion  that  the  number  of  visual  hallucinations 
actually  experienced  by  their  informants  since  the 
age  of  tea  would  be  approximately  secured  by  multi- 
plying the  recorded  number  by  four.1 

But  if  hallucinations  in  general  are  not  remembered 
enough,  coincidental  hallucinations,  at  least  those 
which  coincide  with  the  death  of  the  person  seen,2 
would  appear  to  be  remembered  too  well,  as  will 
appear  from  the  following  figures.  There  are 
13  such  cases  recorded  during  the  last  ten  years. 
Now  if  we  assume  that  this  figure  accurately  re- 

1  The  calculation  is  based  upon  an  analysis  of  the  whole  number  of 
visual  cases  reported  during  the  most  recent  month,  which  would 
indicate  an  annual  rate  of  about  140.     The  figures  for  the  most  recent 
quarter  indicate  an  annual  rate  of  about  120. 

2  A  hallucination  which  coincides  with  a  death  is  defined,  for  the 
purposes  of  this  inquiry,  as  a  hallucination  which  occurs  within  twelve 
hours  of  the  death.  ' 


222  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

presents  the  number  of  such  coincidences  that  have 
occurred  in  the  experience  of  our  informants  during 
the  last  ten  years,  then,  since  the  average  age 
of  our  informants  in  this  particular  case  is  46,  we 
should  expect  to  find  for  the  whole  period  since  the 
age  of  ten  years  47  such  coincidences  reported;  that  is 
on  the  assumption  that  no  death-coincidence  is  ever 
forgotten,  and  that  the  liability  to  such  hallucination 
is  practically  uniform  during  the  entire  period.  We 
do  actually  find  65  cases;  from  which  it  should, 
the  Committee  think,  be  inferred,  not  only  that  few  or 
no  death-coincidences  are  forgotten, — a  result  which 
is  probably  not  surprising, — but  also  that  a  certain 
number  of  cases  which  are  not  death-coincidences 
have  by  the  lapse  of  time  grown  to  appear  so.1  Nor 
is  it  difficult  to  conjecture  the  particular  form  of  error. 
It  is  probable  that  in  most  of  the  18 — more  or  less 
— spurious  death-coincidences,  there  was  an  actual 
phantasm  and  an  actual  death,  but  that  the  two  events 
did  not  stand  in  close  relation  to  each  other.  We 
have  already  (see  Chap.  VI.)  seen  reason  to  suspect 
a  constant  tendency  to  magnify  the  closeness  of  a 
coincidence  of  this  kind.  Seen  from  a  distance  the 
two  events — like  a  binary  star-system — are  apt  to 
coalesce  into  one;  and  a  new  spectral  analysis  is 
required  to  dissociate  them. 

Nor  would  it  be  safe  to  assume  that  the  tendencies 
which  have  demonstrably  operated  to  falsify  the 
more  remote  records  have  been  altogether  inactive 
during  the  last  ten  years.  The  causes  which  tend  to 
sophisticate  narratives  of  this  kind,  as  already  shown, 
are  many  and  difficult  to  detect;  the  kind  of  evidence 
required  to  place  the  alleged  death-coincidence  beyond 

1  There  is  another  possible  explanation— viz. .  that  some  of  the 
recent  death- coincidences  have  been  withheld  from  us,  on  account  of 
the  painful  associations  connected  with  them.  That  some  cases— and 
recent  would  be  more  affected  than  remote  examples — have  been  with- 
held on  this  account  seems  certain ;  but  the  explanation  given  in  the 
text  must,  it  is  thought,  be  held  primarily^  responsible  for  the  dis- 
crepancy in  the  figures. 


ON   HALLUCINATION   IN   GENERAL.  223 

reasonable  doubt  has  in  some  cases  never  existed ; 
in  others,  through  the  destruction  of  documents,  the 
death  of  friends,  or  the  mere  lapse  of  time,  it  is 
now  unattainable.  Of  the  65  reported  coincidences 
perhaps  not  more  than  one-fifth  reach  the  evidential 
standard  of  the  cases  included  in  this  volume.  And 
whilst  there  is  a  strong  presumption  that  some  pro- 
portion of  those,  which  from  one  or  other  of  the 
causes  suggested  inevitably  fall  below  the  standard, 
yet  represent  facts  with  substantial  accuracy,  we  have 
no  test  which  will  enable  us  to  determine  with 
precision  what  narratives  and  to  what  extent  are 
worthy  of  credence.  Many  of  the  best-attested  cases 
are  printed  in  full  in  the  Report  already  referred  to, 
and  any  reader  who  is  interested  in  the  matter  will 
be  able  to  form  an  estimate  for  himself.  Meanwhile, 
an  attempt  has  been  made,  by  means  of  a  careful 
examination  of  each  narrative  in  detail,  to  estimate 
its  evidential  value.  In  the  result  it  would  appear 
that  about  44  narratives  rest  on  evidence  that  may  be 
regarded  as  fairly  good,  Of  these  44  cases,  however, 
12  must  be  struck  out,  3  as  having  been  imported 
into  the  census,1  and  9  because  a  certain  amount  of 
anxiety  may  be  presumed  to  have  existed,  and  may 
be  supposed — though  the  evidence  for  such  action 
is  very  slight — to  have  caused  the  hallucination. 
We  thus  have  32  cases  remaining,  in  which  we 
have  evidence  of  the  occurrence  of  a  hallucination, 
without  apparent  cause,  within  twelve  hours  of  the 
death  of  the  person  seen. 

The  total  number  of  recognised  apparitions  of 
living  persons  recorded  at  first-hand  as  occurring  in 
the  circle  of  17,000  persons  from  which  these  death- 
coincidences  were  drawn,  is  322.2  But  if,  in  order 

1  Cases,  that  is,  in  which  the  collector  is  known  or  suspected  to  have 
asked  the  question  of  the  narrator,  because  he  knew  that  he  was  to 
receive  an  affirmative  answer. 

2  The    gross  total  of    visual  phantasms  recorded  at  first-hand  as 
representing  a  living  human  being,  or  part  of  a  human  being  (<?.£•.,  a 
hand  or  a  face),  is  381.    This  total  includes  cases  given  in  columns  I,  4, 


224  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

to  allow  for  forgetfulness,  as  already  indicated  (p.  221), 
we  multiply  the  number  recorded  by  4,  we  shall 
arrive  at  a  total  of  1288,  as  representing  the 
probable  number  actually  experienced  by  our  in- 
formants since  the  age  of  ten.  We  have,  there- 
fore, 32  cases  of  hallucinations  coinciding  with  the 
death  of  the  person  seen,  in  an  estimated  total 
of  nearly  1300  recognised  apparitions  of  living 
persons — or  about  I  in  40.  But  the  death-rate  for 
England  and  Wales  in  the  last  completed  decade 
being  19.15  per  1000  per  annum,  the  average  prob- 
ability that  any  particular  person  will  die  on  any 
particular  day  is  IQQQX  3  5  =  about  I  jn  I9jOOO  That 

is,  there  is  one  chance  in  19,000  that  a  man  will  die 
on  the  day  on  which  his  apparition  is  seen  and 
recognised,  supposing  there  to  be  no  causal  connec- 
tion between  the  two  events.  Or  in  other  words,  for 
every  hallucination  which  coincides  with  the  death 
of  the  person  seen,  we  should  have  to  find  about 
18,999  similar  hallucinations  (/.&,  recognised  appari- 
tions of  living  persons)  which  do  not  so  coincide. 
But  after  making  due  allowance  for  forgetful- 

and  5  of  the  table  on  p.  218.  From  this  total  we  have  deducted  31 
cases  where  the  percipient  has  had  other  experiences  but  has  not 
enumerated  them,  and  28  cases  which  are  estimated  to  have  occurred 
before  the  age  of  ten,  leaving  the  total  given  in  the  text,  322. 

Of  the  gross  total  of  381,  80  are  alleged  to  have  coincided  with  the 
death  of  the  person  represented.  Deducting  in  like  manner  7  cases 
where  the  percipient  has  had  other  unspecified  experiences,  and  8  where 
the  experience  is  believed  to  have  occurred  before  the  age  of  ten,  we 
reach  the  total  of  65  given  above. 

As,  however,  more  care  was  no  doubt  taken  to  procure  first-hand 
evidence  in  the  case  of  apparitions  coinciding  wjth  a  death  than  in 
other  cases,  it  would  perhaps  lead  to  more  accurate  results  if  in  the 
larger  total  were  included  the  second-hand  non-coincidental  cases,  38  in 
number.  The  reader  can,  if  he  prefer,  work  out  the  result  for  himself 
on  this  basis.  But  it  will,  of  course,  be  understood  that  it  is  not 
practicable  to  sum  up  in  a  few  pages  the  results  of  a  long  investigation ; 
and  those  readers  who  are  interested  in  the  nature  and  distribution  of 
casual  hallucinations,  and  their  relations  to  telepathic  apparitions,  are 
referred  to  the  forthcoming  Report,  from  which  the  figures  in  the  text 
are  quoted. 


ON   HALLUCINATION    IN   GENERAL.  225 

ness  on  the  one  hand,  and  for  the  creative  activity 
of  the  imagination  on  the  other,  we  find  the  actual 
proportion  to  be  I  to  40.  In  the  face  of  these  figures 
it  would  be  preposterous  to  ascribe  the  reported  cases 
of  hallucinations  at  thq  time  of  death  to  chance.  And 
the  argument  for  some  causal  connection  between 
hallucinations  and  external  events  is  of  course 
considerably  strengthened  if,  in  addition  to  (a)  the 
coincidences  of  visual  hallucinations  with  death,  we 
take  account  of  (£)  the  coincidences  of  auditory 
hallucinations  with  death,  and  (c)  the  coincidences  of 
both  visual  and  auditory  hallucinations  with  other 
events  than  death,  and  (d}  the  cases  in  which  the 
coincidence  of  the  apparition  with  the  death  is  nearer 
than  twelve  hours,  the  limit  assumed  in  the  above 
calculations. 

It  may  not  be  superfluous  to  repeat  (see  ante,  p. 
27,  footnote)  that  the  calculation  above  given  does 
not  purport  to  establish  thought-transference  as  the 
cause  of  these  coincidences.  The  cause  may  be  a 
greater  prevalence  of  exaggeration  and  memory- 
illusion  than  the  Committee  have  allowed  for.  What 
the  calculation  does  is  to  bring  us  face  to  face  with 
the  problem  :  Here  are  certain  phenomena,  demon- 
strably  not  due  to  chance:  do  they  reveal  a  new 
mode  of  communication  between  human  minds,  or 
merely  a  new  source  of  fallacy  in  human  testimony? 
It  will  hardly  be  disputed  that,  in  either  event,  to  find 
an  answer  to  the  question  will  justify  much  labour 
spent  upon  the  search. 


226 


CHAPTER  X. 

INDUCED  TELEPATHIC   HALLUCINATIONS. 

IN  the  present  chapter  we  revert  once  more  to 
experimental  evidence.  The  cases  now  to  be  dis- 
cussed should,  in  the  logical  order,  have  been  included 
in  Chapter  V.,  and  for  a  proper  appreciation  of  their 
theoretic  bearings  and  evidential  value  they  ought  to 
be  considered  in  connection  with  the  instances  of 
thought-transference  at  a  distance  there  recorded. 
It  seemed  best,  however,  to  separate  these  instances 
of  the  experimental  production  of  hallucinations  at 
a  distance,  and  reserve  them  for  subsequent  treat- 
ment, with  the  view  of  anticipating  as  far  as  possible 
the  misconceptions  to  which  this  class  of  evidence 
is  peculiarly  open.  In  brief,  until  some  attempt  had 
been  made  to  elucidate  the  nature  of  sensory  hallu- 
cination in  general,  it  seemed  unwise  to  introduce 
matter  so  controvertible  as  apparitions  of  the  human 
figure.  For  we  are  here  assailing  the  last  fortress  of 
superstition  ;  in  discussing  such  matters  even  edu- 
cated persons  find  it  difficult  to  free  themselves 
from  the  fetters  of  traditional  modes  of  thought 
and  speech.  Men  who  would  be  ashamed  to  think 
of  earth,  air,  fire,  and  water  as  elements,  because 
they  were  so  held  a  century  ago  and  are  now  so 
styled  in  the  language  of  the  market-place,  will 
often  see  no  middle  course  between  rejecting  alto- 
gether evidence  of  the  kind  here  dealt  with,  and 
accepting  the  existence  of  "ghosts."  But  those 


INDUCED  TELEPATHIC   HALLUCINATIONS.     227 

who  have  followed  the  argument  of  the  preceding 
chapters  will  see,  if  the  possibility  of  thought-trans- 
ference is  granted,  that  the  narratives  now  to  be 
presented  fall  naturally  into  place  as  illustrating 
one  of  its  modes  of  manifestation.  That  A.  by 
taking  thought  should  cause  an  image  of  himself 
to  appear  to  B.  need  provoke  no  more  surprise 
than  that  by  the  same  means  he  should  cause  B. 
to  see  No.  27,  or  the  Queen  of  Hearts.  No  one 
demands  a  spiritual  entity  corresponding  to  the 
Queen  of  Hearts,  why  then  should  any  one  believe 
in  the  other  case  that  A.'s  spirit  had  left  its  fleshly 
tabernacle  to  interview  B.  ?  The  hallucinatory  figure 
induced  post-hypnotically  in  certain  subjects  presents 
an  even  closer  parallel.  It  is  recognised  by  all  in 
such  a  case  that  the  figure  seen  is  a  thought  fashioned 
by  the  subject's  mind,  with  no  more  substance  than 
any  other  thought.  It  is  only  the  influence  of  an 
unrecognised  animism  which  leads  us  to  demand 
such  a  substantial  basis  when  the  figure  seen  repre- 
sents a  dying  man.  The  impulse  which  led  to  the 
projection  of  the  hallucination  was  in  the  one  case 
conveyed  by  word  of  mouth,  in  the  other  by  some 
process  as  yet  not  understood.  But  the  mystery  lies 
in  the  process  rather  than  in  the  result. 

The  present  chapter,  then,  will  contain  instances 
of  the  action  of  thought-transference  in  which  the 
transmitted  idea  was  translated  in  the  percipient's 
mind,  not,  as  in  most  of  the  cases  described  in  pre- 
vious chapters,  into  a  simple  feeling,  or  sensation, 
or  dream,  but  into  a  hallucination  representing  the 
human  figure.  Readers  of  Phantasms  of  the  Living 
will  remember  the  accounts  there  given  (vol.  i.  pp. 
104-109)  of  some  experiments  made  by  a  friend 
of  ours,  Mr.  S.  H.  B.  On  several  occasions  Mr.  B. 
succeeded  by  an  effort  of  will  in  causing  a  phantom 
of  himself  to  appear  to  acquaintances  who  were  not 
aware  of  his  intention  to  try  the  experiment.  On 
one  occasion  the  figure  was  seen  by  two  persons 


228  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

simultaneously.  As  at  that  time  results  of  the 
kind  were  almost  unprecedented,  we  felt,  notwith- 
standing our  full  confidence  in  Mr.  B.,  some  reluct- 
ance in  publishing  an  account  of  his  experiments, 
lest  isolated  marvels  of  the  kind  might  prejudice 
our  whole  case.  But  fortunately,  while  Phantasms 
of  the  Living  was  actually  passing  through  the  press, 
we  received  from  an  independent  source  an  account 
of  successful  experiments  of  the  same  kind  (see 
below,  case  63),  and  within  a  few  weeks  of  its 
publication  a  friend  of  the  present  writer  was 
induced  by  a  perusal  of  Mr.  B.'s  narrative  to  make 
on  his  own  account  a  similar  trial,  which  com- 
pletely succeeded.  This  gentleman  wrote  to  me 
on  1 6th  November  1886  as  follows: — 

No.  6 1.— From  the  REV.  CLARENCE  GODFREY. 

"  I  was  so  impressed  by  the  account  on  p  105  that  I  de- 
termined to  put  the  matter  to  an  experiment. 

"  Retiring  at  10.45  [°n  tne  I5tri  November  1886]  I  determined 
to  appear,  if  possible,  to  a  friend,  and  accordingly  I  set  myself 
to  work  with  all  the  volitional  and  determinative  energy  which 
I  possess,  to  stand  at  the  foot  of  her  bed.  I  need  not  say  that 
I  never  dropped  the  slightest  hint  beforehand  as  to  my  intention, 
such  as  could  mar  the  experiment,  nor  had  I  mentioned  the 
subject  to  her.  As  the  *  agent1  I  may  describe  rny  own 
experiences. 

Undoubtedly  the  imaginative  faculty  was  brought  exten- 
sively into  play,  as  well  as  the  volitional,  for  I  endeavoured  to 
translate  myself^  spiritually,  into  her  room,  and  to  attract  her 
attention,  as  it  were,  while  standing  there.  My  effort  was 
sustained  for  perhaps  eight  minutes,  after  which  I  felt  tired, 
and  was  soon  asleep. 

"  The  next  thing  I  was  conscious  of  was  meeting  the  lady 
next  morning  (/>.,  in  a  dream,  I  suppose  ?)  and  asking  her  at 
once  if  she  had  seen  me  last  night.  The  reply  came,  'Yes.' 
'How?'  I  inquired.  Then  in  words  strangely  clear  and  low, 
like  a  well  audible  whisper,  came  the  answer,  *  I  was  sitting 
beside  you.'  These  words,  so  clear,  awoke  me  instantly,  and  I 
felt  I  must  have  been  dreaming  ;  but  on  reflection  I  remem- 
bered what  I  had  been  *  willing'  before  I  fell  asleep,  and  it 
struck  me,  '  This  must  be  a  reflex  action  from  the  percipient.' 
My  watch  showed  3.40  A.M.  The  following  is  what  I  wrote 


INDUCED  TELEPATHIC   HALLUCINATIONS.     229 

immediately  in  pencil,  standing  in  my  night-dress : — 'As  I 
reflected  upon  those  clear  words,  they  struck  me  as  being  quite 
intuitive,  I  mean  subjective ',  and  to  have  proceeded  from  withiny 
as  my  own  conviction^  rather  than  a  communication  from  any 
one  else.  And  yet  I  can't  remember  her  face  at  all,  as  one  can 
after  a  vivid  dream  ! ' 

"  But  the  words  were  uttered  in  a  clear,  quick  tone,  which 
was  most  remarkable,  and  awoke  me  at  once. 

*'  My  friend  in  the  note  with  which  she  sent  me  the  enclosed 
account  of  her  own  experience,  says  : — *  I  remember  the  man 
put  all  the  lamps  out  soon  after  I  came  upstairs,  and  that  is 
only  done  about  a  quarter  to  four.'" 

Mr.  Godfrey  received  from  the  percipient  on  the 
1 6th  November  an  account  of  her  side  of  the  ex- 
perience, and  at  his  request  she  wrote  it  down  as 
follows  : — 

"Yesterday — viz.,  the  morning  of  November  i6th,  1886 — 
about  half-past  three  o'clock,  I  woke  up  with  a  start  and  an  idea 
that  some  one  had  come  into  the  room.  I  heard  a  curious  sound, 
but  fancied  it  might  be  the  birds  in  the  ivy  outside.  Next  I 
experienced  a  strange  restless  longing  to  leave  the  room  and  go 
downstairs.  This  feeling  became  so  overpowering  that  at  last 
I  rose  and  lit  a  candle,  and  went  down,  thinking  if  I  could  get 
some  soda  water  it  might  have  a  quieting  effect.  On  returning 
to  my  room  I  saw  Mr.  Godfrey  standing  under  the  large  window 
on  the  staircase.  He  was  dressed  in  his  usual  style,  and  with 
an  expression  on  his  face  that  I  have  noticed  when  he  has  been 
looking  very  earnestly  at  anything.  He  stood  there,  and  I  held 
up  the  candle  and  gazed  at  him  for  three  or  four  seconds  in 
utter  amazement,  and  then,  as  I  passed  up  the  staircase,  he  dis- 
appeared. The  impression  left  on  my  mind  was  so  vivid  that  I 
fully  intended  waking  a  friend  who  occupied  the  same  room  as 
myself,  but  remembering  that  I  should  only  be  laughed  at  as 
romantic  and  imaginative,  refrained  from  doing  so. 

"  I  was  not  frightened  at  the  appearance  of  Mr.  Godfrey,  but 
felt  much  excited,  and  could  not  sleep  afterwards." 

On  the  2 ist  of  the  same  month  I  heard  a  full 
account  of  the  incident  given  above  from  Mr.  Godfrey, 

and  on  the  day  following  from  Mrs. .     Mrs. 

told  me  that  the  figure  appeared  quite  distinct  and 
life-like  at  first,  though  she  could  not  remember  to 
have  noticed  more  than  the  upper  part  of  the  body. 
As  she  looked  it  grew  more  and  more  shadowy,  and 


APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

finally  faded  away.  Mrs. ,  it  should  be  added, 

told  me  that  she  had  previously  seen  two  phantasmal 
figures,  representing  a  parent  whom  she  had  recently 
lost.1 

Mr.  Godfrey  at  our  request  made  two  other  trials, 
without,  of  course,  letting  Mrs. know  his  inten- 
tion. The  first  of  these  attempts  was  without  result, 
owing  perhaps  to  the  date  chosen,  as  he  was  aware 
at  the  time,  being  unsuitable.  But  a  trial  made 
on  the  7th  December  1886  succeeded  completely. 

Mrs.  ,  writing  on  December  8th,  states  that  she 

was  awakened  by  hearing  a  voice  cry,  "  Wake,"  and 
by  feeling  a  hand  rest  on  the  left  side  of  her  head. 
She  then  saw  stooping  over  her  a  figure  which  she 
recognised  as  Mr.  Godfrey's. 

In  this  last  case  the  dress  of  the  figure  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  seen  distinctly.  But  in  the 
apparition  of  the  i6th  November,  it  will  be  observed 
that  the  dress  was  that  ordinarily  worn  in  the  day- 
time by  Mr.  Godfrey,  and  that  in  which  the  percipient 
would  be  accustomed  to  see  him,  not  the  dress  which 
he  was  actually  wearing  at  the  time.  If  the  appari- 
tion is  in  truth  nothing  more  than  an  expression  of  the 
percipient's  thought  this  is  what  we  should  expect  to 
find,  and  as  a  matter  of  fact  in  the  majority  of  well 
evidenced  narratives  of  telepathic  hallucination  this 
is  what  we  actually  do  find.  The  dress  and  surround- 
ings of  the  phantasm  represent,  not  the  dress  and 
surroundings  of  the  agent  at  the  moment,  but  those 
with  which  the  percipient  is  familiar.  If  other  proof 
were  wanting,  this  fact  would  in  itself  seem  a  suffi- 
cient argument  that  we  have  to  deal,  not  with  ghosts 
but  with  hallucinations.  It  is  to  be  regretted,  how- 
ever, that  most  recent  experimenters  in  this  direction 
have  succeeded  only  in  producing  apparitions  of 
themselves.  But  a  crucial  experiment  of  the  kind 
desired  is  to  be  found  in  an  account  published  in 

1  These  details  are  taken  from  notes  made  t>y  the  writer  immediately 
after  the  interview. 


INDUCED  TELEPATHIC  HALLUCINATIONS.     23! 

1822  by  H.  M.  Wcsermann,  Government  Assessor  and 
Chief  Inspector  of  Roads  at  Diisseldorf.  He  records 
five  successful  trials  with  different  percipients,  of 
which  the  fifth  seems  worth  quoting  in  full.1 

No.  62. — From  H.  M.  WESERMANN. 

"  A  lady,  who  had  been  dead  five  years,  was  to  appear  to  Lieu- 
tenant   n  in  a  dream  at  10.30  P.M.  and  incite  him  to  good 

deeds.  At  half-past  ten,  contrary  to  expectation,  Herr n  had 

not  gone  to  bed,  but  was  discussing  the  French  campaign  with 

his  friend  Lieutenant  S in  the  ante-room.  Suddenly  the 

door  of  the  room  opened,  the  lady  entered  dressed  in  white,  with 

a  black  kerchief  and  uncovered  head,  greeted  S with  her 

hand  three  times  in  a  friendly  manner ;  then  turned  to n, 

nodded  to  him,  and  returned  again  through  the  doorway. 

"  As  this  story,  related  to  me  by  Lieutenant n,  seemed  to 

be  too  remarkable  from  a  psychological  point  of  view  for  the 
truth  of  it  not  to  be  duly  established,  I  wrote  to  Lieutenant 

S ,  who  was  living  six2  miles  away,  and  asked  him  to  give 

me  his  account  of  it.  He  sent  me  the  following  reply : — 

"'.  .  .  On  the  I3th  of  March,  1817,  Herr  n  came  to 

pay  me  a  visit  at  my  lodgings  about  a  league  from  A .  He 

stayed  the  night  with  me.  After  supper,  and  when  we  were 

both  undressed,  I  was  sitting  on  my  bed  and  Herr n  was 

standing  by  the  door  of  the  next  room  on  the  point  also  of 
going  to  bed.  This  was  about  half-past  ten.  We  were  speaking 
partly  about  indifferent  subjects  and  partly  about  the  events  of 
the  French  campaign.  Suddenly  the  door  out  of  the  kitchen 
opened  without  a  sound,  and  a  lady  entered,  very  pale,  taller 

than  Herr n,  about  five  feet  four  inches  in  height,  strong  and 

broad  of  figure,  dressed  in  white,  but  with  a  large  black  kerchief 
which  reached  to  below  the  waist.  She  entered  with  bare  head, 
greeted  me  with  the  hand  three  times  in  complimentary  fashion, 

turned  round  to  the  left  towards  Herr  n,  and  waved  her 

hand  to  him  three  times;  after  which  the  figure  quietly,  and 
again  without  any  creaking  of  the  door,  went  out.  We  followed 
at  once  in  order  to  discover  whether  there  were  any  deception, 

1  Der  Magnetismus  und  die  allgemeine  Weltsprachc.    A  brief  account 
of  the  five  trials,  quoted  from  the  Archiv  fur  den  thierischen  Mag- 
netismus,  vol.   vi.  pp.    136-139,   will   be  found   in  Phantasms  of  the 
Living,  vol.  i.  pp.  101,  102.     In  the  other  cases  the  impression  was 
produced  in  a  dream.     The  distance  varied  from  ^  of  a  mile  to  9 
miles  in  the  case  quoted  in  the  text. 

2  In  Wesermann's  book,  as  also  in  the  account  given  in  the  Archiv> 
the  account  is  headed  "  Fifth  experiment  at  a  distance  Qinine  miles." 


232  APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

but  found  nothing.  The  strangest  thing  was  this,  that  our  night- 
watch  of  two  men  whom  I  had  shortly  before  found  on  the  watch 
were  now  asleep,  though  at  my  first  call  they  were  on  the  alert, 
and  that  the  door  of  the  room,  which  always  opens  with  a  good 
deal  of  noise,  did  not  make  the  slightest  sound  when  opened  by 
the  figure.  "<S. 

«'D n,  January  nth,  1818.' 

"  From  this  story  (Wesermann  continues)  the  following  con- 
clusions may  be  drawn  : — 

"  (i)  That  waking  persons,  as  well  as  sleeping,  are  capable  of 
perceiving  the  ideas  \_Gedankenbildcr\  of  distant  friends  through 
the  inner  sense  as  dream  images.  For  not  only  the  opening 
and  shutting  of  the  door,  but  the  figure  itself — which,  moreover, 
exactly  resembled  that  of  the  dead  lady — was  incontestably  only 
a  dream  in  the  waking  state,  since  the  door  would  have  creaked 
as  usual  had  the  figure  really  opened  and  shut  it. 

"  (2)  That  many  apparitions  and  supposed  effects  of  witchcraft 
were  very  probably  produced  in  the  same  way. 

"  (3)  That  clairvoyants  are  not  mistaken  when  they  state  that 
a  stream  of  light  proceeds  from  the  magnetiser  to  the  distant 
friend,  which  visibly  presents  the  scene  thought  of,  if  the  mag- 
netiser thinks  of  it  strongly  and  without  distraction." 

More  philosophic  or  more  successful  than  recent 
investigators,  Wesermann,  it  will  be  seen,  varied  the 
form  of  his  experiment.  In  the  first  he  caused  his 
own  figure  to  appear,  but  in  each  of  the  subsequent 
trials  he  chose  a  fresh  image,  meeting  on  each  occasion 
with  equal  success.  It  should  be  observed,  however, 
that  though  Wesermann  seems  to  have  been  a  careful 
as  well  as  a  philosophic  investigator,  he  has  omitted 
to  record  how  often  he  made  trials  of  this  kind  with- 
out producing  any  result,  and  it  cannot  fairly  be 
assumed  that  there  were  no  failures.  But  in  compar- 
ing such  cases  as  those  here  recorded  with  the  experi- 
ments at  close  quarters  described  in  Chapters  II.,  III., 
and  IV.,  it  should  be  remembered  that  a  failure  which 
consists  merely,  as  in  Mr.  Godfrey's  second  trial,  in 
the  absence  of  any  unusual  impression  on  the  part  of 
the  percipient,  detracts  far  less  from  the  value  of 
occasional  success  than  failures  attested  by  the  produc- 
tion of  wrong  impressions ;  and  further,  that  a  sensory 


INDUCED  TELEPATHIC   HALLUCINATIONS.     233 

hallucination  being  a  much  rarer  phenomenon  than 
an  idea,  the  improbability  of  chance-coincidence  be- 
tween a  hallucination  and  the  attempt  (unknown  to 
the  percipient)  to  produce  it  is  greater  in  the  same 
proportion. 

Later  experience  has  not  confirmed  Wesermann's 
third  inference,  as  to  the  stream  of  light  proceeding 
from  the  agent;  there  are  no  grounds  for  regarding 
such  an  appearance  as  other  than  subjective,  due  to 
the  percipient's  preconceived  ideas  of  what  he  ought 
to  see.  But  another  feature  in  the  narrative  is  more 
significant.  One  is  led  to  infer  both  from  Herr  S.'s 
description  and  from  Wesermann's  remarks  in  (i)  that 
the  figure  seen  resembled  a  deceased  lady  who  was 
not  known  to  either  of  the  percipients.  If  this  inter- 
pretation is  correct,  the  figure  seen  cannot  have  been 
subjective  in  the  same  sense  as  the  hallucinations 
described  in  Chapter  IX.  and  Mr.  Godfrey's  appari- 
tion may  be  supposed  to  have  been.  The  latter  were, 
ex  hypothesi^  autoplastic — i.e.,  they  were  hallucinations 
built  up  in  the  percipient's  own  mind  on  a  nucleus  sup- 
plied from  without  But  what  Herren  S.  and  n 

saw  was  a  heteroplastic  image,  a  picture  like  that  of  a 
diagram  or  a  card  transferred  ready-made  from  the 
agent's  mind.  We  should  not  of  course  be  justified, 
on  the  evidence  of  a  single  narrative  of  somewhat 
doubtful  import,  in  concluding  that  such  an  origin 
for  a  hallucination  is  possible.  But  there  are  a  few 
narratives  to  be  cited  later  (Chapter  XI 1 1.)  which  also 
suggest  such  an  interpretation. 

In  Mr.  Godfrey's  trials,  as  also  in  those  made  by 
Mr.  S.  H.  B.,  the  agent  was  asleep  at  the  time  of 
the  experiment1  In  the  two  cases  which  follow  the 
agent  was  in  a  hypnotic  trance.  In  the  first  instance, 
it  will  be  seen,  there  appears  to  have  been  a  reciprocal 
effect,  the  agent  himself  becoming  aware  at  the  time 
of  the  percipient's  surroundings,  and  of  the  effect  pro- 

1  Wesermann  unfortunately  does  not  record  his  own  state  at  the  tim* 
of  the  experiments. 


234  APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

duced  on  her  by  his  influence.     The  account  was  sent 
to  us  in  January  1886. 

No.  63.— From  MR.  H.  P.  SPARKS. 

After  describing  various  hypnotic  experiments  on 
a  fellow-student,  Mr.  A.  H.  W.  Cleave,  Mr.  Sparks 
continues: — 

"  Last  Friday  evening  (January  I5th,  1886)  he  expressed  his 
wish  to  see  a  young  lady  living  in  Wandsworth,  and  he  also 
said  he  would  try  to  make  himself  seen  by  her  I  accordingly 
mesmerised  him,  and  continued  the  long  passes  for  about  20 
minutes,  concentrating  my  will  on  his  idea.  When  he  came 
round  (I  brought  him  round  by  just  touching  his  hand  and 
willing  him,  after  i  hour  and  20  minutes'  trance)  he  said  he  had 
seen  her  in  the  dining-room,  and  that  after  a  time  she  grew 
restless,  and  then  suddenly  looked  straight  at  him  and  then 
covered  her  eyes  with  her  hands.  Just  after  this  he  came 
round.  Last  Monday  evening  (January  i8th,  1886)  we  did  the 
same  thing,  and  this  time  he  said  he  thought  he  had  frightened 
her,  as  after  she  had  looked  at  him  for  a  few  minutes  she  fell 
back  in  her  chair  in  a  sort  of  faint.  Her  little  brother  was  in  the 
room  at  the  time.  Of  course,  after  this  we  expected  a  letter  if 
the  vision  was  real;  and  on  Wednesday  morning  he  received 
a  letter  from  this  young  lady  asking  whether  anything  had 
happened  to  him,  as  on  Friday  evening  she  was  startled  by 
seeing  him  standing  at  the  door  of  the  room.  After  a  minute 
he  disappeared,  and  she  thought  that  it  might  have  been  fancy ; 
but  on  the  Monday  evening  she  was  still  more  startled  by  seeing 
him  again,  and  this  time  much  clearer,  and  it  so  frightened  her 
that  she  nearly  fainted. 

"  This  account  I  send  you  is  perfectly  true,  I  will  vouch,  for 
I  have  two  independent  witnesses  who  were  in  the  dormitory  at 
the  time  when  he  was  mesmerised,  and  when  he  came  round. 
My  patient's  name  is  Arthur  H.  W.  Cleave,  and  his  age  is 
1 8  years.  A.  C.  Darley  and  A.  S.  Thurgood,  fellow-students, 
are  the  two  witnesses  I  mentioned.  "  H.  PERCY  SPARKS." 

Mr.  Cleave  writes,  on  March  isth,  1886: — 

"H.M.S.  Marlborotigh,  PORTSMOUTH. 

"  Sparks  and  myself  have,  for  the  past  eighteen  months,  been 
in  the  habit  of  holding  mesmeric  stances  in  pur  dormitories. 
For  the  first  month  or  two  we  got  no  very  satisfactory  results, 
but  after  that  we  succeeded  in  sending  one  another  to  sleep. 
I  could  never  get  Sparks  further  than  the  sleeping  state,  but  he 


INDUCED  TELEPATHIC  HALLUCINATIONS.    23$ 

could  make  me  do  anything  he  liked  whilst  I  was  under  the 
influence  ;  so  I  gave  up  trying  to  send  him  off,  and  all  our 
efforts  were  made  towards  my  being  mesmerised.  After  a  short 
time  we  got  on  so  well  that  Sparks  had  three  or  four  other 
fellows  in  the  dormitory  to  witness  what  I  did.  I  was  quite 
insensible  to  all  pain,  as  the  fellows  have  repeatedly  pinched 
my  hands  and  legs  without  my  feeling  it  About  six  months 
ago  I  tried  my  power  of  will,  in  order,  while  under  the  influence, 
to  see  persons  to  whom  I  was  strongly  attached.  For  some 
time  I  was  entirely  unsuccessful,  although  I  once  thought  that  I 
saw  my  brother  (who  is  in  Australia),  but  had  no  opportunity  of 
verifying  the  vision. 

"  A  short  time  ago  I  tried  to  see  a  young  lady  whom  I  know 
very  well,  and  was  perfectly  surprised  at  my  success.  I  could 
see  her  as  plainly  as  I  can  see  now,  but  I  could  not  make  myself 
seen  by  her,  although  I  had  often  tried  to.  After  I  had  done 
this  several  times  I  determined  to  try  and  make  myself  seen  by 
her,  and  told  Sparks  of  my  idea,  which  he  approved.  Well,  we 
tried  this  for  five  nights  running  without  any  more  success.  We 
then  suspended  our  endeavours  for  a  night  or  two,  as  I  was 
rather  over-exerted  by  the  continued  efforts  and  got  severe 
headaches.  We  then  tried  again  (on,  I  think  it  was,  a  Friday, 
but  am  not  certain),  and  were,  I  thought,  successful ;  but  as  the 
young  lady  did  not  write  to  me  about  it,  I  thought  I  must  have 
been  mistaken,  so  I  told  Sparks  that  we  had  better  give  up 
trying.  But  he  begged  me  to  try  once  more,  which  we  did  on 
the  following  Monday,  when  we  were  successful  to  such  an 
extent  that  I  felt  rather  alarmed.  (I  must  tell  you  that  I  am  in 
the  habit  of  writing  to  the  young  lady  every  Sunday,  but  I  did 
not  write  that  week,  it  order  to  make  her  think  about  me.) 
This  took  place  between  9.30  P.M.  and  10  P.M.  Monday  night, 
and  on  the  following  Wednesday  morning  I  got  the  letter  which 
I  have  enclosed.  I,  of  course,  then  knew  I  had  been  successful. 
I  went  home  about  a  fortnight  after  this,  when  I  saw  the  young 
lady,  who  seemed  very  frightened  in  spite  of  my  explanations, 
and  begged  me  never  to  try  it  again,  and  I  promised  her  that  I 
would  not." 

The  two  witnesses  of  the  experiment  last  described 
write  as  follows: — 

"  I  have  seen  Mr.  Cleave's  account  of  his  mesmeric  experi- 
ment, and  can  fully  vouch  for  the  truth  thereof. 

"A.  C  DARLEY." 

"I  have  read  Mr.  Cleave's  statement,  and  can  vouch  for  the 
truth  of  it,  as  I  was  present  when  he  was  mesmerised  and  heard 
his  statement  after  he  revived.  "A.  E.  S.  THURGOOD." 


236  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

The  following  is  a  copy,  made  by  Mr.  Gurney,  of 

the    letter   in    which    the  young   lady,   Miss    A , 

described  her  side  of  the  affair.  The  envelope  bore 
the  postmarks,  "  Wandsworth,  Jan.  19,  1886,"  "Ports- 
mouth, Jan.  20,  1886,"  and  the  address,  "Mr.  A.  H. 
W.  Cleave,  H.M.S.  Marlborough,  Portsmouth." 

"  WANDSWORTH,  Tuesday  morning. 

"  DEAR  ARTHUR, — Has  anything  happened  to  you  ?  Please 
write  and  let  me  know  at  once,  for  I  have  been  so  frightened. 

"  Last  Tuesday  evening  I  was  sitting  in  the  dining  [room] 
reading,  when  I  happened  to  look  up,  and  could  have  declared 
I  saw  you  standing  at  the  door  looking  at  me.  I  put  my  hand- 
kerchief to  my  eyes,  and  when  I  looked  again  you  were  gone. 
I  thought  it  must  have  been  only  my  fancy,  but  last  night 
(Monday),  while  I  was  at  supper,  I  saw  you  again,  just  as 
before,  and  was  so  frightened  that  I  nearly  fainted.  Luckily 
only  my  brother  was  there,  or  it  would  have  attracted  attention. 
Now  do  write  at  once  and  tell  me  how  you  are.  I  really  cannot 
write  any  more  now." 

It  will  be  seen  that  Miss  A fixes  the  date 

of  her  first  hallucination  on  Ttiesday,  whereas  Mr. 
Sparks  and  Mr.  Cleave  speak  of  it  as  Friday.  Mr. 
Gurney,  in  conversation  with  the  experimenters,  was 
unable  to  fix  the  actual  date  with  any  certainty,  but 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  if  Tuesday  was  the  day, 
it  fell  within  the  five  days  on  which  Mr.  Cleave 
attempted  to  see  Miss  A .  Of  the  second  coin- 
cidence there  can  be  no  doubt. 

The  next  case  is  recorded  by  Mr.  F.  W.  H.  Myers 
(Journal  S.P.R.,  March  1891),  who  writes: — 

No.  64. 

"In  1888  a  gentleman,  whom  I  will  call  Mr.  A.,  who  has 
occupied  a  high  public  position  in  India,  and  whom  I  have 
known  a  long  time,  informed  me  verbally  that  he  had  had  a 
remarkable  experience.  He  awoke  one  morning,  in  India,  very 
early,  and  in  the  dawning  light  saw  a  lady,  whom  I  will  call 
Mrs.  B.,  standing  at  the  foot  of  his  bed.  At  the  same  time  he 
received  an  impression  that  she  needed  him.  This  was  his  sole 
experience  of  a  hallucination ;  and  it  so  much  impressed  him 
that  he  wrote  to  the  lady,  who  was  in  England  at  the  time,  and 


INDUCED  TELEPATHIC   HALLUCINATIONS.     237 

mentioned  the  circumstance.  He  afterwards  heard  from  her 
that  she  had  been  in  a  trance-condition  at  the  time,  and  had 
endeavoured  to  appear  to  him  by  way  of  an  experiment. 

"  Mr.  A.  did  not  give  me  the  lady's  name,  supposing  that  she 
did  not  desire  the  incident  to  be  spoken  of ;  nor  did  he  find  an 
opportunity  of  himself  inquiring  as  to  her  willingness  to  mention 
the  matter." 

Subsequently,  on  July  I3th,  1890,  the  agent,  Mrs. 
B.,  wrote  of  her  own  accord  to  Mr.  Myers.  Mrs.  B. 
began  by  stating  that  she  had  submitted  herself  to  be 
experimented  upon  by  a  lady  friend,  with  the  view  of 
acquiring  clairvoyant  faculties.  She  then  described 
how  in  the  course  of  one  experiment  in  1886  she  lost 
consciousness  of  outward  things,  and  saw  the  figure 
of  a  tall  woman,  whom  she  recognised  as  a  friend  of 
her  mother's,  standing  by  her.  Then  she  goes  on  : — 

"  I  find  myself  seriously  debating  within  myself  what  I  should 
do  to  prove  to  myself,  and  for  my  own  satisfaction,  if  I  am 
indeed  the  victim  of  hallucination  or  not.  I  decided  in  a  flash 
on  a  man  whom  I  knew  to  be  possessed  of  the  most  work-a-day 
world  common-sense ;  his  views  and  mine  regarding  most 
things  were  at  the  antipodes,  very  unreceptive,  who  would  be 
entirely  out  of  sympathy  with  me  in  my  present  experiment  and 
experiences,  at  which  I  knew  he  would  only  laugh,  while  regard- 
ing me  as  a  simple  tool  in  tricky  hands.  Such  a  man  was,  I 
decided,  the  most  satisfactory  for  my  trial.  The  grey  lady  here 
impressed  me  with  a  desire  to  will ;  in  her  anxiety  she  appeared 
to  move  towards  me.  I  felt  her  will  one  with  mine,  and  I  willed 
with  a  concentrated  strength  of  mind  and  body,  which  finally 
prostrated  me,  thus :  I  will  that  [Mr.  A.]  may  feel  I  am  near 
him  and  want  his  help  ;  and  that,  without  any  suggestion  from 
me,  he  write  to  tell  me  I  have  influenced  him  to-night. 

"The  grey  lady  disappeared.  I  was  seated  in  the  chair, 
weary,  but  feeling  naturally,  and  back  in  common-place  life. 
We  put  down  the  date  and  the  appearance  of  the  grey  lady,  and 
I  spoke  to  none  of  what  had  happened.  Some  weeks  passed, 
when  I  received  a  letter  from  [Mr.  A.],  asking  how  had  I  been 
employed  on  a  certain  July  evening  at  such  and  such  an  hour, 
mentioning  to  what  hour  it  would  answer  in  London— day,  date, 
and  hour  were  those  on  which  I  had  made  my  proof  trial — 
saying  that  he  was  asleep,  and  had  dreamed  something  he 
would  tell  me,  but  that  he  awoke  from  the  dream  feeling  I 
wanted  something  of  him,  and  asking  me  to  let  him  know  if  at 
the  time  he  so  carefully  mentioned  I  hac}  been  doing-  anything 


238  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

which  had  any  reference  to  him.     I  then,  and  then  only,  told 
him  what  I  have  here  related." 

Unfortunately  Mr.  A.,  on  being  again  appealed  to, 
refused  to  write  an  account  of  his  own  experience,  on 
the  ground  that  his  memory  for  details  might  by 
lapse  of  time  have  become  untrustworthy.  The  case 
is  therefore  defective,  not  merely  by  the  length  of 
time  which  passed  between  the  incident  and  the 
agent's  record  of  it,  but  by  the  absence  of  any  direct 
testimony  from  the  percipient.  It  will  be  seen  that 
Mrs.  B.  writes  of  Mr.  A.'s  impression  as  a  dream.  It 
seems  clear,  however,  that  Mr.  A.  did  not  himself 
regard  his  experience  as  a  dream. 

An  interesting  account  is  given  by  Miss  Edith 
Maughan  (Journal  S.P.R^)  of  a  similar  experiment 
made  by  her  in  the  summer  of  1888.  She  was 
reading  in  bed  when  the  idea  occurred  to  her  of 
"willing"  to  appear  to  her  friend,  Miss  Ethel 
Thompson,  who  occupied  the  adjoining  room.  After 
concentrating  her  attention  strongly  for  a  few  minutes 
she  "felt  dizzy  and  only  half-conscious."  On  re- 
covering full  consciousness  she  heard  Miss  Thomp- 
son's voice  speaking  in  the  next  room.  The  time  was 
about  2  A.M.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Miss  Thompson, 
who  was  fully  awake,  was  disturbed  between  2  and 
3  A.M.  by  seeing  at  the  bedside  the  figure  of  Miss 
Maughan,  which  disappeared  instantly  on  a  light 
being  struck.  It  is  not  perhaps  possible  under  the 
circumstances,  in  view  of  Miss  Maughan's  own  state- 
ment that  she  was  only  semi-conscious  during  part  of 
the  experiment,  absolutely  to  exclude  the  hypothesis 
that  the  figure  seen  was  that  of  Miss  Maughan  in 
some  state  analogous  to  somnambulism,  and  the  case 
is  not  therefore  given  in  full;  but  it  is  important  to 
note  that  both  ladies — and  we  have  reason  to  know 
that  they  are  good  observers — are  convinced  that  the 
figure  seen  was  not  that  of  Miss  Maughan  in  the 
flesh,  and  the  rapidity  of  the  disappearance  is  a 
further  argument  against  such  a  supposition. 


INDUCED  TELEPATHIC  HALLUCINATIONS.     239 

In  the  cases  so  far  dealt  with  the  agent,  when 
his  state  is  recorded,  was  asleep  or  entranced  at 
the  time  of  the  experiment,  whilst  the  percipient 
appears  as  a  rule  to  have  been  awake.  In  the 
cases  which  follow  the  agent  was  awake,  but  the 
percipient,  in  two  of  the  cases — if  not  also  in  the 
third — seems  to  have  seen  the  hallucinatory  figure 
in  the  borderland  state  on  awaking  from  sleep.  In 
two  of  the  cases  the  agent,  no  doubt  intentionally, 
chose  a  time  when  he  had  reason  to  believe  that 
the  percipient  would  be  asleep;  in  the  third  case, 
whilst  the  experiments  at  night  failed,  success  was 
obtained  when  the  percipient  had  fallen  asleep  un- 
expectedly in  the  day-time.  In  view  of  the  absence 
of  any  well-attested  cases  in  which  both  agent  and 
percipient  are  shown  to  have  been  fully  awake  imme- 
diately before  and  at  the  time  of  the  experiment, — 
in  case  62  (Wesermann)  the  state  of  the  agent,  and 
in  case  66  ( Wiltse)  that  of  the  percipient,  is  not  clearly 
shown, — it  is  difficult  to  resist  the  conclusion  that 
the  condition  of  sleep  or  trance  in  one  or  both  parties 
to  the  experiment  is  favourable  to  transference  of  this 
kind.  That  sleep,  or  rather  the  borderland  which  lies 
on  either  side  of  sleep,  is  peculiarly  favourable  to  the 
production  in  the  percipient,  not  only  of  hallucinations 
in  general,  but  of  telepathic  hallucinations  in  particular, 
has  already  been  shown.  But  the  instances  cited  in 
the  present  chapter  would  seem  to  indicate  that  in  the 
agent  also  sleep  and  trance  (or  possibly  a  trance  self- 
induced  in  sleep  or  in  waking)  may  facilitate  such 
transmissions. 

No.  65.— From  DR.  VON  SCHRENCK-NOTZING. 

We  received  the  following  case  from  Baron  von 
Schrenck-Notzing,  some  of  whose  experiments  have 
been  already  quoted  (No.  9,  p.  54).  Dr.  von  Schrenck- 
Notzing  first  gave  an  account  of  the  incident  verbally 
to  Professor  Sidgwick  at  Munich,  and  subsequently, 


240  APPARITIONS  AND    THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

at  his  request,  sent  in  June  1888  the  following  written 
narrative : — 

"In  the  winter  of  1886-87,  I  think  it  was  in  the  month  of 
February,  as  I  was  going  along  the  Barerstrasse  one  even- 
ing at  half- past  u,  it  occurred  to  me  to  make  an  attempt 
at  influencing  at  a  distance,  through  mental  concentration. 
As  I  had  had,  for  some  time,  the  honour  of  being  acquainted 
with  the  family  of  Herr ,  and  thus  had  had  the  oppor- 
tunity of  learning  that  his  daughter,  Fraulein  ,  was  sen- 
sitive to  psychical  influences,  I  decided  to  try  to  influence 
her,  especially  as  the  family  lived  at  the  corner  of  the 
Barerstrasse  and  Karlstrasse.  The  windows  of  the  dwell- 
ing were  dark  as  I  passed  by,  from  which  I  concluded  that 
the  ladies  had  already  gone  to  rest.  I  then  stationed  myself 
by  the  wall  of  the  houses  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  road, 
and  for  about  five  minutes  firmly  concentrated  my  thoughts  on 

the  following  desire:— Fraulein shall  wake  and  think  of 

me.  Then  I  went  home.  The  next  day  when  I  met  Fraulein 
's  friend  on  the  ice,  I  learned  from  her  (they  shared  a  bed- 
room between  them)  that  something  strange  had  happened 
to  the  ladies  during  the  preceding  night.  I  remarked  there- 
upon to  Fraulein  Prieger  (such  was  the  friend's  name)  that 
the  time  when  the  occurrence  took  place  was  between  half- 
past  ii  and  12;  whereat  she  was  greatly  astonished.  Then  I 
obtained  from  the  lady  an  account  of  the  circumstance,  as  she 
herself  has  written  it  out  on  the  accompanying  sheet  of  paper. 
For  me  the  success  of  this  experiment  was  a  proof  that  under 
certain  circumstances  one  person  can  influence  another  at  a 
distance. 

"  ALBERT  FREIHERR  VON  SCHRENCK-NOTZING." 

The   percipient,   Miss  ,  writes   on    May   nth 

1888  :— 

"  There  is  not  much  to  tell  concerning  the  incident  of  which 
you  ask  me  to  give  an  account.  It  happened  thus:— Baron 
Schrenck  was  returning  home  one  night  in  March  1887  (or 
April,  I  am  not  sure  as  to  the  date),  about  11.30,  and  stood 
for  some  time  outside  my  bedroom  window,  which  looked  on- 
to the  street.  I  was  in  bed  at  the  time,  lying  with  closed  eyes, 
nearly  asleep.  It  seemed  to  me  as  if  the  part  of  the  room 
where  my  bed  was  had  become  suddenly  light,  and  I  felt  com- 
pelled to  open  my  eyes,  seeing  at  the  same  time,  as  it  appeared 
to  me,  the  face  of  Baron  Schrenck.  It  was  gone  again  as  quick 
as  lightning.  The  next  day  I  told  my  friend  Fraulein  Prieger 
of  this  occurrence ;  she  went  skating  that  same  day,  and  met 
Baron  Schrenck  on  the  ice.  They  had  scarcely  conversed 


INDUCED  TELEPATHIC  HALLUCINATIONS.     24! 

together  five  minutes  before  he  asked  Fraulein  Prieger  if  I 
had  seen  'anything  last  night.  Fraulein  Prieger  repeated  what 
I  had  told  her,  whereupon  Baron  Schrenck  said  that,  at  the 
time  of  my  seeing  him,  he  was  standing  outside  my  window, 
trying  hard  to  impress  his  presence  upon  me.  This  never 
occurred  again,  and  I  believe  Baron  Schrenck  did  not  have 
occasion  to  repeat  the  experiment." 

In  a  further  letter  Miss adds  (i)  that  the 

blinds  of  her  room  were  drawn  down,  (2)  that  she 
has  experienced  no  other  hallucination  of  any  kind. 

Fraulein  Prieger,  whose  account  was  enclosed  in 
Dr.  von  Schrenck-Notzing's  letter  of  June  1888, 
writes : — 

"  The  winter  before  last,  shortly  after  Christmas,  I  was  suddenly 
awakened  in  the  night,  between  n  and  12  o'clock,  by  my  friend 

,  who  asked  me  in  an  excited  manner  if  I  also  saw  Baron 

von  Schrenck,  who  was  close  by  her  bed.  On  my  objecting 
that  she  had  been  dreaming,  and  should  now  quietly  go  to  sleep 
again,  she  repeated  that  she  had  been  completely  awake,  and 
had  seen  Baron  von  Schrenck  so  close  to  her  that  she  could  have 
caught  hold  of  his  beard.  By  degrees  she  quieted  herself,  and 
we  both  went  to  sleep. 

"  The  following  day,  on  my  way  home  from  the  ice,  I  told 
Baron  von  Schrenck  of  this  exciting  nocturnal  scene,  and 
noticed  to  my  not  slight  astonishment  that  he  seemed  greatly 
rejoiced,  as  though  over  a  successful  experiment  which  had 
received  its  completion  in  what  I  communicated  to  him. 

"LINA  PRIEGER. 

"  Gubelsbergerstrasse,  15  I." 

It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  none  of  the  persons 
concerned  thought  it  worth  while  to  write  down  an 
account  of  the  incident  at  the  time.  It  will  be 
observed  that  even  in  the  comparatively  short  interval 
— little  more  than  a  year — which  elapsed  before  this 
was  done,  one  slight  discrepancy,  as  to  the  time  at 
which  Fraulein  Prieger  was  told  of  the  impression, 
has  crept  into  the  narrative.  But  it  seems  clear  that 

Miss told  her  experience  before  Fraulein  Prieger 

met  Baron  von  Schrenck-Notzing. 

In  the  next  two  cases  also  the  result  here  recorded 

16 


242  APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

is  one  of  many  successful  experiments   in  thought- 
transference  made  by  the  agent  (see  Chapter  XV.). 

No.  66.—  From  DR.  WlLTSE,  Skiddy,  Kansas,  U.S.A. 


"March  i6//fc,  1891. 

"  Some  weeks  ago  several  persons  were  passing-  the  evening 
at  my  house,  and  two  children,  a  little  girl  of  eight  years  and 
a  boy  of  six  years,  whose  mother  is  stopping-  with  us,  had  been 
put  to  bed  in  an  adjoining  room,  the  door  between  the  rooms 
being  closed.  The  company  were  engaged  in  games  that  did 
not  interest  me,  and  I  took  a  seat  some  five  feet  from  the  bed- 
room door  and  began  trying  to  make  the  boy  see  my  form  in 
the  room  at  his  bedside,  he  being  on  the  front  side  of  the  bed. 
I  knew  the  children  were  awake,  as  I  could  hear  them  laughing. 
After  some  ten  or  fifteen  minutes,  the  boy  suddenly  screamed  as 
if  frightened,  and,  hurrying  in  there,  I  found  the  little  fellow 
buried  up  in  the  bedclothes  and  badly  frightened,  but  he  seemed 
ashamed  of  his  fright  and  would  not  tell  me  what  was  the 
matter. 

"  I  kept  the  matter  of  my  having  tried  an  experiment  a 
thorough  secret,  and  after  some  two  weeks  it  came  out  through 
the  little  girl  that  Charlie  thought  he  saw  a  "  great  big  tiger 
standing  by  his  bed  looking  at  him,  and  he  could  see  Uncle 
Hime  (myself)  in  the  tiger's  eyes."  What  was  the  tiger?  I  had 
not  thought  of  any  form  but  my  own.  The  child  lives  in 
Cleveland,  Ohio,  and  has  seen  the  collections  in  Zoological 
Gardens,  but  has  not  been  taught  the  different  colours.  I  have 
just  now  shown  him  the  plates  in  Wood's  Natural  History,  and 
he  pointed  out  a  lion  as  the  animal  he  saw,  but  as  the  plates  are 
not  coloured,  they  are  little  good  for  the  purpose  ;  but  as  I  began 
at  the  back  of  the  book  and  took  through  all  sorts  first,  and  the 
lion  was  the  first  and  only  animal  designated  by  him  as  the  one 
he  had  seen  in  the  room,  I  conclude  he  was  near  enough  to  the 
classification  for  our  purpose.  No  one  but  myself  knew  of  my 
experiment  until  the  children  had  told  their  story. 

"A.  S.  WILTSE." 
Dr.  Wiltse  writes  later:  — 

"  SKIDDY,  MORRIS  Co.,  KANSAS, 

March  29^,  1891. 

"  I  tried  one  more  experiment  of  the  same  kind  with  the  little 
boy,  but  failed,  but  I  was  conscious  of  wavering  in  mind  during 
the  whole  course  of  the  experiment,  and  besides  this  there  were 
other  unfavourable  conditions.  The  child's  mother  was  absent 
for  the  evening  and  the  children  with  my  own  boy  (aged  fifteen) 
were  making  Rome  howl  in  the  way  of  untrammelled  fun." 


INDUCED  TELEPATHIC  HALLUCINATIONS.     243 

Mrs.  Wiltse  and  Dr.  Wiltse's  son  write  as  follows:— 

"  SKIDDY,  KANSAS, 

March  2%th,  1891. 

"  I  was  present  when  Josie  Skene  told  papa  what  her  brother 
Charlie  was  scared  about. 

"  She  said  that  Charlie  throwed  the  cover  over  his  head  and 
told  her  that  he  saw  a  tiger,  and  Uncle  Hime,  as  he  called  papa, 
was  in  the  tiger's  eyes. 

"  JASON  WILTSE." 

"  I  certify  that  the  above  statement  is  substantially  correct, 
as  1  also  heard  the  little  girl  relate  it. 

"  MRS.  HAIDEE  WILTSE." 

Mrs.  Charles  Skene,  the  mother  of  the  little  boy, 
writes : — 

"  153  PLATT  STREET  [CLEVELAND,  OHIO], 
April  qtk,  1891. 

"  Your  letter  dated  the  6th  came  to  hand  to-day.  I  was  on 
a  visit  to  the  Dr.  and  his  family,  and  one  evening  he  said  he 
would  try  an  experiment  on  my  little  boy;  it  was  about  seven 
o'clock  and  they  had  just  been  put  to  bed.  The  Dr.  wanted  to 
make  him  see  him  by  his  bedside,  and  him  in  the  other  room, 
and  he  did;  he  saw  him  in  the  form  of  a  tiger  and  he  also  had 
tigers  in  his  eyes.  He  commenced  to  shout,  and  said  he  was 
frightened,  but  did  not  say  any  more,  he  was  so  frightened.  This 
is  my  daughter's  statement  as  far  as  she  can  recollect. 

"  If  there  are  anymore  questions  you  would  like  me  to  answer 
I  will  gladly  do  so.  I  was  not  at  home  the  night  this  happened. 

"  MRS.  CHAS.  SKENE." 

Later  she  adds : — 

"April  2>jth,  1891. 

"Your  letter  of  the  I7th  came  to  hand.  I  do  not  know  the 
date,  but  it  was  about  the  middle  of  February,  on  a  Wednesday 
evening.  My  little  boy  is  six  years  old;  he  remembers  it  well, 
and  often  talks  of  it." 

Mrs.  Skene  added,  in  answer  to  a  question,  that  the 
boy  did  not  know  that  the  experiment  was  being 
tried  on  him.  It  should  be  added  that  Mr.  Rasero, 
who  was  present,  wrote,  on  the  3Oth  October  1891,  to 
confirm  Dr.  Wiltse's  statement  that  nothing  was  said 
beforehand  about  trying  an  experiment  of  any  kind. 

The  tiger  in  this  experiment  appears  to  have  been 


244  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

a  confused  nightmare  effect  produced  by  the  tele- 
pathic impression  on  the  mind  of  the  child  percipient 
In  the  next  case,  it  will  be  seen,  the  percept  appears 
to  have  been  unusually  clear  and  distinct 

No.  67. — From  JOSEPH  KiRK.1 

Mr.  Kirk  has  made  several  attempts  to  produce  a 
hallucination  of  himself.  Writing  to  us  on  the  7th  July 
1890,  he  stated  that  without  the  knowledge  of  his  friend 
and  neighbour,  Miss  G.,  he  tried  each  night,  from  the 
loth  to  the  2Oth  of  June,  and  once  on  the  nth  in  the 
afternoon,  to  induce  her  to  see  a  hallucination  of  him- 
self. From  casual  conversation,  however,  with  Miss 
G.  he  gathered  that  no  effect  had  been  produced. 
But  on  June  23rd  Mr.  Kirk  learned  that  the  trial 
made  on  June  nth,  the  day  and  hour  of  which  had 
been  noted  at  the  time,  had  completely  succeeded. 
He  thus  describes  the  occasion  : — 

"  2  RIPON  VILLAS,  PLUMSTEAD. 

" .  .  .  I  had  been  rather  closely  engaged  on  some  auditing 
work,  which  had  tired  me,  and  as  near  as  I  can  remember  the 
time  was  between  3.30  and  4  P.M.  that  I  laid  down  my  pencil, 
stretched  myself,  and  in  the  act  of  doing  the  latter  I  was  seized 
with  the  impulse  to  make  a  trial  on  Miss  G.  I  did  not,  of 
course,  know  where  she  was  at  the  moment,  but,  with  a  flash, 
as  it  were,  I  transferred  myself  to  her  bedroom.  I  cannot  say 
why  I  thought  of  that  spot,  unless  it  was  that  I  did  so  because 
my  first  experiment  had  been  made  there—/.*.,  on  the  previous 
night,  the  loth  June.  As  it  happened,  it  was  what  I  must  call 
a  £  lucky  shot,'  for  I  caught  her  at  the  moment  she  was  lightly 
sleeping  in  her  chair — a  condition  which  seems  to  be  peculiarly 
favourable  to  receiving  and  externalising  telepathic  messages. 

"  The  figure  seen  by  Miss  G.  was  clothed  in  a  suit  I  was  at 
the  moment  wearing,  and  was  bareheaded,  the  latter  as  would 
be  the  case,  of  course,  in  an  office.  This  suit  is  of  a  dark 
reddish-brown  check  stuff,  and  it  was  an  unusual  circumstance 
for  me  to  have  had  on  the  coat  at  the  time,  as  I  wear,  as  a  rule, 
an  office  coat  of  light  material.  But  this  office  coat  I  had,  a 
day  or  so  before,  sent  to  a  tailor  to  be  repaired,  and  I  had, 
therefore,  to  keep  on  that  belonging  to  the  dark  suit. 

"  I  tested  the  reality  of  the  vision  by  this  dark  suit     I  asked, 

1  See  Nos.  37,  38,  39,  Chapter  V. 


INDUCED  TELEPATHIC  HALLUCINATIONS.     245 

'How  was  I  dressed?1  (not  at  all  a  leading  question).  The 
reply  of  Miss  G.  was,  touching  the  sleeve  of  the  coat  I  was  then 
wearing  (of  a  light  suit),  *  Not  this  coat,  but  that  dark  suit  you 
wear  sometimes.  I  even  saw  clearly  the  small  check  pattern  of 
it ;  and  I  saw  your  features  as  plainly  as  though  you  had  been 
bodily  present.  I  could  not  have  seen  you  more  distinctly."' 

Miss  G/s  account  is: — 

"Junertth,  1890. 

"A  peculiar  occurrence  happened  to  me  on  the  Wednesday 
of  the  week  before  last.  In  the  afternoon  (being  tired  by  a 
morning  walk),  while  sitting  in  an  easy-chair  near  the  window 
of  my  own  loom,  I  fell  asleep.  At  any  time  I  happen  to  sleep 
during  the  day  (which  is  but  seldom)  I  invariably  awake  with 
tired,  uncomfortable  sensations,  which  take  some  little  time  to 
pass  off;  but  that  afternoon,  on  the  contrary,  I  was  suddenly 
quite  wide  awake,  seeing  Mr.  Kirk  standing  near  my  chair, 
dressed  in  a  dark  brown  coat,  which  I  had  frequently  seen  him 
wear.  His  back  was  towards  the  window,  his  right  hand 
towards  me ;  he  passed  across  the  room  towards  the  door, 
which  is  opposite  the  window,  the  space  between  being  15  feet, 
the  furniture  so  arranged  as  to  leave  just  that  centre  clear;  but 
when  he  got  about  4  feet  from  the  door,  which  was  closed,  he 
disappeared. 

"  I  feel  sure  I  had  not  been  dreaming  of  him,  and  cannot 
remember  that  anything  had  happened  to  cause  me  even  to 
think  of  him  that  afternoon  before  falling  asleep." 

Mr.  Kirk  writes  later: — 

"  I  have  only  succeeded  once  in  making  myself  visible  to 
Miss  G.  since  the  occasion  I  have  already  reported,  and  that 
had  the  singularity  of  being  only  my  features— my  face  in 
miniature^  that  is,  about  three  inches  in  diameter." 

In  a  letter  dated  January  igth,  1891,  Mr.  Kirk 
says  as  to  this  last  appearance: — 

"  Miss  G.  did  not  record  this  at  the  time,  as  she  attached  no 
importance  to  it,  but  I  noted  the  date  (July  23rd)  on  my  office 
blotting-pad,  as  it  was  at  the  office  I  was  thinking  of  her.  I  say 
*  thinking,' because  I  was  doing  so  in  connection  with  another 
subject,  and  with  no  purpose  of  making  an  experiment.  I  had 
a  headache,  and  was  resting  my  head  on  my  left  hand. 
Suddenly  it  occurred  to  me  that  my  thinking  about  her  might 
probably  influence  her  In  some  way,  and  I  made  the  note  I 
have  mentioned." 


246  APJ>ARtf  IONS  AND  THOUGtif-TRANSFfekfcNCfc. 

Mr.  Kirk  enclosed  in  his  statement  to  us  the  piece 
of  blotting-paper  on  which  the  note  of  the  second 
successful  experiment  had  been  made.  The  fact 
that  the  hallucination  in  the  first  case  included  a 
representation  of  the  clothes  actually  worn  by  the 
agent  at  the  time  may  have  been  a  mere  coincidence. 
But  the  case  should  be  borne  in  mind  in  considering 
the  possibility  of  heteroplastic  hallucination. 


247 


CHAPTER  XI. 

SPONTANEOUS   TELEPATHIC   HALLUCINATIONS. 

IN  the  last  chapter  we  gave  illustrations  of  telepathic 
hallucinations  induced  by  an  act  of  voluntary  concen- 
tration on  the  part  of  the  agent.  The  hallucinatory 
effects  now  to  be  described  were  produced  without 
design,  and  in  some  cases,  it  would  appear,  without 
the  conscious  direction  of  the  agent's  thoughts  to  the 
person  affected.  They  purport,  in  fact,  to  have  been 
the  spontaneous  outcome  of  some  emotional  stress 
on  the  part  of  the  person  whom  the  hallucination 
represented. 

Auditory  Hallucinations. 

We  will  begin  by  quoting  two  examples  of  auditory 
hallucination. 

No.  68. — From  Miss  C.  CLARK. 

"  1889. 

"  I  heard  some  one  sobbing  one  evening  last  August  (1888) 
about  10  P.M.  It  was  in  the  house  in  Dunbar,  Scotland,  as  I 
was  preparing  to  go  to  bed.  Feeling  convinced  that  it  was  my 
youngest  sister,  I  advised  another  sister  not  to  go  into  the  next 
room,  whence  the  sounds  seemed  to  proceed.  After  waiting 
with  me  a  few  minutes  this  sister  went  into  the  dining-room, 
and  returned  to  me  saying  that  our  youngest  sister  was  in  the 
dining-room,  and  not  crying  at  all.  Then  I  at  once  thought 
there  must  be  something  the  matter  with  my  greatest  friend,  a 
girl  of  twenty-four,  then  in  Lincolnshire.  I  wrote  to  her  next 
day,  asking  her  if,  and  at  what  hour  on  the  previous  night,  she 
had  been  crying.  In*  her  next  letter  she  said,  'Yes,  she  was 


248  APPARITIONS  AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

suffering  great  pain  with  toothache  just  at  the  time,  and  was 
unable  to  restrain  a  few  sobs.'  .  .  .  This  has  been  the  only 
similar  experience  I  have  had." 

I  have  seen  the  letter  referred  to,  together  with 
three  others,  extracts  from  which  are  given  below. 
It  will  be  seen  that  Miss  Clark  was  mistaken  in 
supposing  that  she  wrote  next  day.  The  letter  was 
actually  begun  three  days  after — on  the  Wednes- 
day— and  completed  on  the  subsequent  day,  after 
the  receipt  of  Miss  Maughan's  letter  written  on  the 
Tuesday  evening.  In  view,  however,  of  the  fact 
that  Miss  Clark  wrote  of  her  impression  before  the 
receipt  of  her  friend's  letter,  the  mistake  seems  not 
material. 

From  Miss  CLARK. 

"  DUNBAR, 

"Wednesday,  August  iind,  1888,  9  P.M. 
"Were  you  crying  on  Sunday  night  near  eleven   o'clock? 
Because  I  distinctly  heard  some  one  crying,  and  supposed  it 
was  H.  in  the  next  room,  but  she  was  not  there  at  all. 

"Then  I  thought  it  must  be  something  'occult,'  and  that  it 
might  be  you,  and  I  felt  so  horrid." 

"  Thursday,  August  2$rct,  1888,  4.45  P.M. 
"  Thank  you  very  much  for  your  letter  just  come.     I  am  so 
sorry  your  face  was  sore.    Did  it  make  you  cry  on  Sunday 
night?" 

From  Miss  MAUGHAN. 

(The  cover  of  this  letter  has  been  preserved,  and 
bears  the  postmark,  "  Spilsby,  Aug.  22nd,  1888.") 

"Tuesday  Evening,  Aug.  2isty  1888. 

"  On  Sunday  we  went  to  see  Wroxham  Broad.  We  had  an 
immense  amount  of  walking  to  do  altogether,  and  I  think  I  got 
a  little  cold  in  my  face  in  the  morning,  and  all  night  I  suffered 
with  it,  and  my  face  is  swelled  still." 

In  a  second  letter  Miss  Maughan  writes  : — 

"  Thursday,  August  2$rd,  1 1  P.M. 

"  I  am  putting  poultices  on  my  gums.  I  have  never  had  such 
a  huge  swelling  before,  and  it  won't  go  down.  It  is  so  horribly 
uncomfortable." 


SPONTANEOUS   HALLUCINATIONS. 

"  Saturday  Afternoon. 

"  Thanks  for  letter.  Yes,  I  was  crying  on  Sunday  night  ; 
only  on  account  of  the  pain.  It  was  awful,  but  I  only  cried 
quietly,  as  Edith  was  asleep.  .  .  ." 

From  Miss  CLARK. 

"  Monday,  August  2jth,  1888,  10.30  A.M. 
"  Thanks  for  your  letter.     I  am  sorry  it  was  you  crying.     You 
don't  seem  at  all  struck.     I  was  very  much  so.     It  was  a  sub- 
dued sort  (sic)  I  heard,  and  thought  H.  was  trying  not  to  let  it 
be  heard.     I  shall  always  be  afraid  now  of  hearing  things." 

The  sound  here  was  of  an  inarticulate  kind,  nor  was 
it  immediately  referred  to  the  actual  agent,  and  both 
these  facts  must  be  held  to  detract  from  the  evidential 
value  of  the  coincidence.  In  the  next  case,  however, 
the  voice,  it  will  be  seen,  was  at  once  recognised. 
The  voice  in  this  case  awoke  the  percipient,  and  the 
impression  should  therefore  be  classed  as  a  hallucina- 
tion rather  than  as  a  dream,  but  it  was  of  the  "  border- 
land "  type.  The  uneasiness  caused  to  the  percipient, 
as  attested  by  the  letter  and  telegram  sent,  is  sufficient 
proof  that  the  impression  was  of  a  kind  unusual  in  his 
experience. 

No.  69.  —  From  MR.  WILLIAM  TUDOR. 


"AUBURNDALE, 

"Your  favour1  of  the  3oth  ult,  addressed  to  Mrs.  Tudor,  I 
will  answer,  as  the  incident  more  directly  concerned  me. 

"  Late  in  the  evening  of  Monday,  March  I7th,  near  midnight, 
my  nephew,  Frederic  Tudor,  Jun.,  fell  in  front  of  an  electric  car 
going  to  Cambridge,  was  dragged  some  distance  and  so  badly 
injured  that  for  a  time  his  life  was  in  doubt,  though  he  recovered 
with  the  loss  of  a  foot.  My  wife  heard  of  the  accident  on 
Tuesday  afternoon  and  was  much  distressed  all  the  night  of 
Tuesday,  and  quite  restless  and  wakeful. 

"At  this  time  I  was  in  Gainesville,  Florida,  having  im- 
portant business  there  in  connection  with  land  purchases. 
On  the  night  of  Tuesday  I  went  to  bed  rather  early  in  a  calm 

1  Mr.  Tudor  wrote  to  Dr.  'Hodgson  in  answer  to  a  letter  received 
from  him. 


250  AtPARItlONS  Attb  THOCGHt-TRANSFERENCE. 

state  of  mind.  I  slept  soundly,  as  I  usually  do.  About  mid- 
night, as  I  should  judge,  I  heard  my  wife  call  my  name  quite 
distinctly  and  waked  instantly  broad  awake.  I  sat  up  in  bed, 
but  soon  remembering  where  I  was,  fell  asleep  again  and  waked 
no  more  until  morning.  The  next  day  the  incident  of  the  night 
made  me  quite  uneasy,  also  during  the  following  day,  and  as  I 
was  obliged  to  leave  on  the  afternoon  of  Friday  for  a  rough 
journey  in  the  country  I  telegraphed  to  my  wife  to  know  what 
was  the  matter.  I  usually  receive  a  letter  from  home  every  day, 
and  on  these  days  no  letter  arrived,  which  added  to  my  un- 
easiness. No  answer  was  received  to  my  first  telegram,  for  the 
very  good  reason  that  it  was  never  delivered.  I  was  obliged  to 
start,  however,  in  the  afternoon  of  this  day,  Friday  the  2ist, 
and  in  the  morning  of  the  22nd,  from  a  small  town  called  New 
Branford,  sent  another  telegram,  of  which  the  following  is  the 
substance: — 'Shall  be  gone  three  days;  what  has  happened? 
Answer  Branford.'  I  had  a  strong  impression  that  something 
serious  had  occurred,  that  my  wife  was  possibly  ill,  or  some  of 
the  children  were  ill,  or  that  some  accident  or  death  had 
occurred  to  a  near  relation,  not  however  involving  my  immediate 
family.  The  following  extracts  from  my  letters  will  illustrate 
this  feeling : — 

"  Letter  of  March  I9th  : 

"  '  I  thought  you  called  me  last  night.  I  waked  up  and  was 
much  worried  ;  I  hope  you  are  not  ill.' 

"  Letter  of  March  22nd,  from  New  Branford  : 

" '  No  answer  comes  to  my  telegram,  although  I  left  word  to 
have  it  forwarded  here.  Surely  some  one  would  telegraph  if 
you  were  ill.  Surely  you  would  let  me  know  if  anything  had 
happened.  I  do  not  feel  that  anything  serious  has  happened, 
and  yet  I  cannot  understand  such  a  combination  of  circum- 
stances. I  have  no  confidence  in  these  telegraph  people,  and 
daresay  you  never  received  my  message.' 

"  Letter  of  March  24th,  from  Gainesville,  after  telegram  giving 
account  of  accident  was  finally  received  : 

"  *  I  had  a  feeling  that  something  was  wrong  but  that  you  were 
all  right.' 

"  Such  I  give  as  the  substance  of  the  facts  in  this  case,  which 
I  trust  may  be  interesting  to  the  Society. 

"WILLIAM  TUDOR." 

Mrs.  W.  Tudor  writes  : — 

"  AUBURNDALE,/^/;/  29^,  1890. 

"  My  nephew's  accident  occurred  on  Monday  night.  Being 
out  of  town  I  heard  of  it  on  Tuesday  afternoon.  I  immediately 
went  to  Boston  and  returned  the  sa^ne  evening  about  nine 
o'clock,  feeling  greatly  distressed.  I  wrote  a  letter  to  my 


SPONTANEOUS  HALLUCINATIONS. 

husband  after  my  return  describing  the  accident  and  retired  to 
bed  rather  late  and  passed  a  restless  night  The  telegram 
received  from  my  husband  rather  surprised  me,  as  he  is  not 
usually  anxious  when  away  from  home.  I  believe  this  is  all  I 
know  connected  with  this  incident.  ELIZABETH  TUDOR." 

An  account  of  a  similar  experience  was  sent  to  us 
in  1889  by  the  late  Sir  John  Drummond  Hay,  K.C.B. 
He  wrote  that  about  I  A.M.  on  some  day  in  February 
1879  he  heard  distinctly  the  voice  of  his  daughter-in- 
law  saying,  "  Oh,  I  wish  papa  only  knew  that  Robert 
was  ill."  Sir  John  awoke  Lady  Drummond  Hay  to 
tell  her  what  he  had  heard,  and  made  a  note  of  the 
incident  in  his  diary.  It  was  shortly  ascertained  that 
Mr.  R.  D.  Hay  had  been  taken  seriously  ill  on  that 
night,  and  that  Mrs.  Hay  had  used  the  words  heard. 
Sir  John's  account  is  confirmed  by  Lady  Hay  and 
Mrs.  R.  D.  Hay. 

Visual  Hallucinations. 

The  comparative  frequency  of  auditory  hallucin- 
ations, and  especially  the  ease  with  which  auditory 
illusions  can  be  built  up  on  a  basis  of  real  sound, 
render  coincidences  of  the  kind,  even  the  best 
attested,  of  less  service  to  support,  however  valu- 
able as  illustrating,  the  theory  of  telepathy.  Visual 
hallucinations,  however,  present  us  with  a  much  rarer 
type  of  impression,  and  one  in  which  explanation  by 
illusion  is  comparatively  seldom  possible.  Telepathic 
hallucinations,  like  ordinary  non-coincidental  hallucin- 
ations, may  assume  various  forms,  and  instances  of 
grotesque  and  partially  developed  visual  impressions 
are  not  wanting.  Thus  we  have  a  case  in  which 
the  face  of  a  dying  relative  was  recognised  in  the 
middle  of  a  large  ball  of  light  like  a  firework  (Journal, 
October  1891);  and  Mr.  Sherer,  of  Amble,  North- 
umberland, tells  us  that  he  saw  reflected  in  a  ship's 
compass  the  face  of  ,a  young  lady  to  whom  he  was 
engaged,  at  about  the  time  of  her  death.  In  the 


At>i>ARlftONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

following  case  the  hallucination,  though  still  far  from 
complete,  appears  to  have  been  more  realistic  and 
more  fully  developed. 

No.  70. — From  COUNTESS  EUGENIE  KAPNIST. 

[Writing  on  June  24th,  1 891,  the  percipient  explains  that  in  Feb- 
ruary 1 889  she  and  her  sister  made  the  acquaintance  at  Talta  of  a 
Mr.  P.,  who  was  at  that  time  in  an  advanced  stage  of  consumption. 
On  one  occasion,  in  the  course  of  conversation,  Mr.  P.  promised 
Countess  Ina  Kapnist,  in  the  presence  of  the  narrator,  that 
should  he  die  before  her  he  would  endeavour  to  appear  to  her. 
The  Countess  and  her  sister  met  Mr.  P.  occasionally  after  this 
conversation,  and  frequently  saw  him  walking  about  in  a  nut- 
brown  overcoat,  which  caused  them  some  amusement.  They 
left  Talta,  however,  in  May  1889,  and  in  the  course  of  a  few 
months  had  completely  forgotten  Mr.  P.  and  his  wife,  whom 
they  regarded  merely  in  the  light  of  ordinary  acquaintances. 
On  the  1 2th  March  1890  the  two  ladies,  on  their  way  home 
from  the  theatre,  drove  to  the  railway  station  with  a  friend  who 
was  to  return  at  i  A.M.  to  Tsarskoe'.] 

"  On  leaving  the  station,'' the  Countess  writes,  "our  servant 
went  on  before  to  find  the  carriage,  so  that  on  reaching  the  steps 
we  found  it  had  driven  up  and  was  waiting  for  us.  My  sister 
was  the  first  to  take  her  seat;  I  kept  her  waiting,  as  I  descended 
the  steps  more  slowly ;  the  servant  held  the  door  of  the  landau 
open.  With  one  foot  on  the  step  I  suddenly  stood  still,  arrested 
in  the  act  of  entering  the  carriage,  and  stunned  with  surprise. 
It  was  dark  inside  the  carriage,  and  nevertheless,  facing  my 
sister  and  looking  at  her,  I  saw  in  a  faint  grey  light  which 
seemed  unnatural,  and  which  was  clearest  at  the  point  on  which 
my  eyes  were  fixed,  a  face  in  profile,  not  so  much  vague  as  soft 
and  transparent.  This  vision  only  lasted  an  instant,  during 
which,  however,  my  eyes  noted  the  smallest  details  of  the  face, 
which  seemed  familiar  to  me;  the  rather  sharp  features,  the 
hair  parted  a  little  on  one  side,  the  prominent  nose,  the  sharp 
chin  with  its  sparse,  light  brown  beard.  What  strikes  me 
when  I  think  of  it  now  is  the  fact  that  I  could  distinguish  the 
different  colours,  though  the  greyish  light  which  scarcely 
revealed  the  stranger  would  have  been  insufficient  to  enable 
me  to  distinguish  them  in  ordinary  circumstances.  He  had  no 
hat,  but  wore  a  top-coat,  such  as  is  worn  in  the  South,  in  colour 
a  rather  light  nut-brown.  His  whole  person  had  an  air  of  great 
weariness  and  emaciation.  The  servant,  much  surprised  that 
I  did  not  enter  the  carriage  but  remained  petrified  on  the  step, 
thought  I  had  trodden  on  my  gown,  and  helped  me  to  seat 


SPONTANEOUS   HALLUCINATIONS. 

myself,  while  I  asked  my  sister,  as  I  took  my  place  beside  her,  if 
it  was  really  our  carnage,  so  much  was  I  confused  and  stupefied 
by  seeing  a  stranger  seated  opposite  her.  It  had  not  occurred 
to  me  that  if  a  real  person  had  been  sitting  there,  neither  my 
sister  nor  the  footman  would  have  remained  so  quietly  face  to 
face  with  him.  When  I  was  seated  I  no  longer  saw  anything, 
and  I  asked  my  sister,  'Did  you  see  nothing  opposite  you?' 
*  Nothing  whatever,  and  what  possessed  you  to  ask  as  you  got 
in  if  it  was  really  our  carriage  ? ;  she  answered  laughing.  Then 
I  told  her  what  I  have  related  above,  describing  my  vision 
minutely.  'That  familiar  face,3  said  she,  'the  hair  parted  at 
the  side,  the  nut-brown  coat,  where  have  we  seen  it  ?  Certainly 
nothing  here  answers  to  your  description/  and  we  racked  our 
brains  without  finding  any  clue.  After  we  got  home  we  related 
the  incident  to  our  mother ;  my  description  made  her  also  re- 
member vaguely  a  similar  face.  The  next  evening  (March  I2th) 
a  young  man  of  our  acquaintance,  Mr.  Solovovo,  came  to  see  us. 
I  told  him  also  what  had  just  occurred.  We  discussed  it  at 
some  length,  but  fruitlessly.  I  still  could  not  find  the  right 
name  for  the  man  of  my  vision,  though  I  remembered  quite 
well  having  seen  a  face  exactly  similar  among  my  numerous 
acquaintances,  but  when  and  where  ?  I  could  remember 
nothing,  with  my  bad  memory,  which  often  fails  me  in  this 
fashion.  Some  days  later  we  were  calling  on  Mr.  Solovovo's 
grandmother.  'Do  you  know/  she  said,  'what  sad  news  I 
have  just  received  from  Talta?  Mr.  P.  has  just  died,  but  I 
have  heard  no  details.'  My  sister  and  I  looked  at  each  other. 
At  the  mention  of  this  name  the  pointed  face  and  the  nut-brown 
top-coat  found  their  possessor.  My  sister  recognised  him  at 
the  same  time  as  myself,  thanks  to  my  minute  description. 
When  Mr,  Solovovo  entered  I  begged  him  to  find  the  exact 
date  of  the  death  in  the  newspapers.  The  date  of  the  death 
was  given  as  the  I4th  of  March,  that  is  to  say  two  days  after 
my  vision.  I  wrote  to  Talta  for  information,  and  learned  that 
Mr.  P.  was  confined  to  bed  from  the  24th  November,  and  that 
from  that  time  he  was  in  a  very  feeble  state,  but  sleep  never  left 
him.  He  slept  so  long  and  so  profoundly,  even  during  the  last 
night  of  his  life,  that  hopes  were  entertained  of  his  improve- 
ment. 

"We  were  much  astonished  that  it  was  I  who  saw  Mr.  P., 
although  he  had  promised  to  appear  to  my  sister ;  but  here  I 
ought  to  add  that  before  the  occurrence  mentioned  above  I 
had  been  clairvoyante  a  certain  number  of  times  ;  but  this 
vision  is  certainly  the  one  in  which  I  distinguished  details 
most  clearly,  even  down  to  the  colours  of  the  face  and 
dress. 

*     "COMTESSE  EUGENIE  KAPNIST. 
COMTESSE  INA  KAPNIST." 


254  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

The  second  signature  is  that  of  the  sister  who  was 
present  at  the  time.  The  account  above  given,  it 
should  be  explained,  is  a  translation  from  the  original 
French. 

Our  friend,  Mr.  Petrovo-Solovovo,  through  whom 
we  obtained  the  account,  writes  : — 

"  I  have  much  pleasure  in  certifying  that  the  fact  of  Countess 
Kapnist's  vision  was  mentioned,  among  others,  to  myself  before 
the  news  of  Mr.  P.'s  death  came  to  St.  Petersburg.  I  well 
remember  seeing  an  announcement  of  his  demise  in  the 
papers." 

The  narrative  presents  several  points  of  interest. 
The  deferred  recognition  is  by  no  means  without 
parallel  (see  case  68  and  cases  26,  191,  etc.,  in 
Phantasms),  but  in  this  case  the  interval  which  elapsed 
before  the  identification  of  the  phantasm  was  unusu- 
ally prolonged.  Of  course  the  fact  that  the  vision 
was  not  identified  beforehand  is  an  element  of  weak- 
ness in  the  case,  but  as  the  deep  impression  left  on 
the  percipient  by  her  vision  seems  well  established, 
we  have  some  warrant  for  assuming  that  the  details 
have  been  accurately  remembered.  And  if  we  may 
accept  these  details  the  case  throws  light  upon  the 
genesis  of  such  hallucinations.  That  a  dying  man, 
whilst  failing  to  impress  the  idea  of  his  own  person- 
ality upon  the  mind  of  a  distant  acquaintance,  should 
succeed  in  calling  up  the  image — to  himself  of  quite 
secondary  importance  —  of  the  clothes  which  he 
habitually  wore,  would  seem  at  first  sight  a  paradox. 
But  the  difficulty  disappears  if  we  recognise  that 
the  telepathic  impression  in  such  cases  is  probably 
received  and  the  hallucination  elaborated  by  a  sub- 
conscious stratum  of  the  intelligence,  and  that  the 
picture  is  in  due  time  flashed  up  thence  fully  formed 
to  the  ordinary  consciousness.  The  image  of  the 
clothes  worn  by  the  agent,  trivial  and  unessential  to 
himself,  would  not  improbably  bulk  more  largely  in 
the  conception  formed  of  him  by  an  acquaintance, 


SPONTANEOUS   HALLUCINATIONS.  25  J 

and  might  even  find  an  echo  in  the  percipient's 
consciousness  when  the  image  of  the  man  himself 
had  been  obliterated  by  more  recent  memories.  It 
i-s  possible  that  the  arrested  development  of  the 
hallucination  may  have  some  connection  with  the 
imperfect  recognition. 

In  the  following  case  also  the  hallucination,  though 
recognised,  appears  to  have  fallen  short  of  complete 
embodiment 

No.  71. — From   MlSS  L.  CALDECOTT. 

"February  u/>&,  1890. 

"  A  sensation  of  faint  glowing  light  in  the  darkest  corner  of 
the  room  made  me  first  look  in  that  direction  (which  happened 
to  be  next  the  door),  and  I  then  became  aware  of  some  one 
standing  there,  holding  her  hands  outstretched  as  if  in  appeal. 
My  first  impression  was  that  it  was  my  sister,  and  I  said, 
'  What's  the  matter? -'but  instantly  saw  who  it  was — a  friend, 
who  was  at  that  time  in  Scotland.  I  felt  completely  riveted, 
but  though  my  heart  and  pulses  were  beating  unnaturally  fast, 
neither  much  frightened  nor  surprised,  only  with  a  sort  of 
impulse  to  get  up  and  go  after  the  figure,  which  I  could  not 
move  to  do.  The  form  seemed  to  melt  away  into  the  soft  glow, 
which  then  also  died  out  It  was  about  half-past  ten  at  night. 

I  was  at  my  home  in .  The  date  I  am  unable  to  fix  nearer 

than  that  it  was  either  August  or  September  1887. 

"  I  was  perfectly  well.  I  was  reading  Carlyle's  Sartor 
Resartus  at  the  time.  I  was  in  no  trouble  or  anxiety  of  any 
kind.  Age  about  twenty-six. 

"  I  had  not  seen  my  friend  for  about  a  year.  I  wrote  to  her 
the  day  after  this  happened,  but,  before  my  letter  reached  her, 
received  one  in  which  she  told  me  of  a  great  family  trouble  that 
was  causing  her  much  suffering,  and  saying  that  she  had  been 
longing  for  me  to  help  her.  Another  letter  in  answer  to  mine 
then  told  me  that  her  previous  letter  was  written  about  10.30 
on  the  night  I  saw  her,  and  that  she  had  been  wishing  for  my 
presence  then  most  intensely.  My  friend  died  very  shortly 
afterwards. 

"  No  other  persons  were  present  at  the  time." 

One  of  the  agent's  letters,  written  in  reply  to  a 
letter  from  Miss  CaWecott  describing  the  apparition, 
has  fortunately  been  preserved.  The  letter  is  dated 


2$6  APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

August  i6th,  1888.  The  following  extracts  were 
written  down  by  Mrs.  Sidgwick  from  Miss  Caldecott's 
dictation  : — 

" '  Your  account  is  very  strange,  and  I  cannot  quite  make  up 
my  mind  what  to  think  of  it.  If  it  had  not  been  that  on  that 
very  Tuesday  night  I  really  was  thinking  of  you  very  much,  and 
wishing  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart  that  I  could  get  at  you,  I 
should  be  inclined  to  say  that  your  apparition  was  entirely 
subjective,  and  that  you  imagined  you  saw  me.  But  if  there  is 
any  connection  between  mind  and  mind,  why  should  it  not  be 
so,  and  that  it  really  was  because  I  was  wishing  so  hard  I  could 
be  with  you.  You  know  that  was  the  night  I  got  back.  I 
unpacked  some  of  my  things,  and  then  began  to  write  to  you. 
It  was  then  somewhere  between  eleven  and  twelve.  At  all 
events,  I  remember  it  struck  twelve  some  time  after  I  got  into 
bed.  .  .  .  Tell  me  anything  you  can  of  my  general  appearance, 
and  so  forth.  If  you  saw  me  as  I  was  at  the  time  it  seems 
fairly  conclusive  it  was  my  thinking  of  you  caused  you  to  see 
me,  and  not  indigestion  on  your  part,  and  entirely  independent 
of  me.'" 

In  conversation  Mrs.  Sidgwick  learnt  that  the  face 
and  hands  of  the  figure  were  seen  most  clearly.  The 
hands  appeared  as  if  held  out,  palms  upward.  The 
dress  was  "rather  indefinite.  She  looked  as  Miss 
Caldecott  was  accustomed  to  see  her,  but  Miss 
Caldecott  did  not  notice  the  dress  particularly,  and 
did  not  see  the  figure  clearly  at  all  below  the  knees." 
Miss  Caldecott  has  had  a  visual  hallucination  on  two 
other  occasions,  when  she  was  in  bed  recovering  from 
an  illness.  At  the  time  of  the  vision  above  described 
she  was  in  perfect  health.  It  will  be  observed  that 
the  phantasm  developed  gradually,  the  percipient's 
attention  having  been  first  arrested  by  noticing  the 
glow  in  the  corner  of  the  room.  (Compare  No.  84, 
Chapter  XII.,  and  the  cases  given  in  Phantasms  of 
the  Living,  vol.  i.,  chap,  xii.)  It  will  be  seen  that  the 
percipient's  recollection  was  at  fault,  both  as  to  the 
date  and  the  hour  of  the  incident.  But  a  discrepancy 
of  this  kind  cannot  be  regarded  as  serious.  Persons 
whose  lives  are  not  marked  off— ^-.,  by  changes  of  resi- 
dence or  occupation — into  distinct  periods,  frequently 


SPONTANEOUS   HALLUCINATIONS.  257 

experience  a  difficulty  in  assigning  to  the  right  year 
even  an  event  of  importance.  But  in  this  case  the 
incident  in  itself  was  trivial,  and  there  was  no  land- 
mark by  which  to  determine  its  relation,  in  point  of 
time,  to  external  events.  A  mistake  in  the  date 
under  such  circumstances  can  scarcely  be  held  to 
reflect  upon  the  narrator's  general  accuracy. 

In  the  next  case  also  the  apparition  was  pre- 
ceded and  accompanied  by  a  luminous  effect.  In 
this  instance,  however,  the  percipient  appears  to 
have  been  in  bed,  and  the  hallucination  should 
be  classed  as  a  "borderland"  case.  It  will  be  seen 
that  the  apparition  preceded  the  actual  death  by 
several  hours,  but  apparently  coincided  with  a  period 
of  severe  illness 

No.  72. — From  DR.  CARAT.1 

"25bl3  RUE  VICTOR-HUGO,  MALAKOFF, 
PARIS,  July  zot/t,  1891. 

"  My  mother,  from  the  time  she  was  twenty-five  years  old, 
had  suffered  from  an  affection  of  the  lungs,  but  she  had  kept  her 
health,  although  she  had  gone  through  many  troubles.  There 
was  nothing  to  indicate  what  happened  on  the  nth  June  1877 
— she  succumbed  in  a  few  hours  to  an  attack  of  inflammation 
of  the  lungs  ;  indeed,  I  had  two  days  before  that  date  received 
a  letter  from  her  in  which  she  showed  no  anxiety  about  her 
health. 

"  On  the  night  of  the  loth  June  1877  I  had  what  might  be 
called  a  telepathic  hallucination.  I  cannot  state  the  hour  with 
absolute  precision,  but  it  was  between  ten  o'clock  and  mid- 
night. About  that  time,  *  between  sleeping  and  waking,'  I  saw 
the  end  of  my  room  lighted  up,  the  darkness  was  illuminated  by 
a  silvery  light  (it  is  the  only  word  I  can  think  of),  and  I  saw  my 
mother  gazing  fixedly  at  me,  with  a  sort  of  troubled  expression. 
After  a  few  seconds  it  all  disappeared. 

"  Next  day  one  of  my  friends — M.  Laroche,  now  sub-director 
of  the  Conservateur  Co.,  18  Rue  Lafayette — was  breakfasting 
with  me.  I  told  him  about  my  experience,  and  he  too  regarded 
it  as  a  hallucination.  At  parting  I  said  to  him,  *  Remember, 
Laroche,  if  anything  happens,  that  I  have  told  you  this  to-day.' 

1  Annales  des  Sciences  Psychtques,  July- August  1893,  pp.  196,  197. 

17 


258  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

"  Next  clay  I  received  news  of  my  mother's  death. 
"  I  have  never  on  any  other  occasion  experienced  a  hallucina- 
tion, or  anything  approaching  to  it." 

From  M.  LAROCHE. 
[To  PROFESSOR  RICHET.] 

"  SIR, — After  an  absence  from  home  I  have  just  returned  and 
found  awaiting  me  the  letter  which  you  did  me  the  honour  to 
write  on  the  7th  inst,  on  the  subject  of  a  vision  which  my  friend 
Dr.  Carat  had  on  the  eve  of  his  mother's  death,  at  a  time  when 
he  believed  her  to  be  in  good  health  at  Dunkirk.  The  circum- 
stance was  told  me  by  Dr.  Carat  immediately  after  it  occurred. 
You  can  make  any  use  of  my  testimony  you  think  fit. 

"  LAROCHE." 

From  the  last  case  we  pass,  by  an  easy  transition, 
to  those  completely  externalised  apparitions  which 
cheat  the  senses  by  the  life-like  presentment  of  a 
human  figure. 

No.  73. — From   Miss  BERTA  HURLY,  Waterbeach 
Vicarage,  Cambridge. 

"February  1890. 

"  In  the  spring  and  summer  of  1886  I  often  visited  a  poor 
woman  called  Evans,  who  lived  in  our  parish,  Caynham.  She 
was  very  ill  with  a  painful  disease,  and  it  was,  as  she  said,  a 
great  pleasure  when  I  went  to  see  her;  and  I  frequently  sat 
with  her  and  read  to  her.  Towards  the  middle  of  October  she 
was  evidently  growing  weaker,  but  there  seemed  no  immediate 
danger.  I  had  not  called  on  her  for  several  days,  and  one  even- 
ing I  was  standing  in  the  dining-room  after  dinner  with  the  rest 
of  the  family,  when  I  saw  the  figure  of  a  woman  dressed  like 
Mrs.  Evans,  in  large  apron  and  muslin  cap,  pass  across  the 
room  from  one  door  to  the  other,  where  she  disappeared.  I 
said,  'Who  is  that?'  My  mother  said,  'What  do  you  mean?' 
and  I  said,  'That  woman  who  has  just  come  in  and  walked 
over  to  the  other  door.'  They  all  laughed  at  me,  and  said  I 
was  dreaming,  but  I  felt  sure  it  was  Mrs.  Evans,  and  next 
morning  we  heard  she  was  dead. 

"BERTA  HURLY." 

Miss  Hurly's  mother  writes  : — 

"On  referring  to  my  diary  for  the  month  of  October  1886, 
I  find  the  following  entry : — '  I9th.  Berta  startled  us  all  after 


SPONTANEOUS   HALLUCINATIONS. 

dinner,  about  8.30  last  evening,  by  saying  she  saw  the  figure  of 
a  woman  pass  across  the  dining-room,  and  that  it  was  Mrs. 
Evans.  This  morning  we  hear  the  poor  woman  is  dead.'  On 
inquiring  at  the  cottage  we  found  she  had  become  wandering 
in  her  mind,  and  at  times  unconscious,  about  the  time  she 
appeared  to  Berta,  and  died  towards  the  morning. 

"ANNIE  Ross. 
"  February  25^,  1890." 


In  this  case  the  apparition,  it  will  have  been 
observed,  was  mistaken  for  a  real  person.  We 
should  not  be  justified,  however,  in  concluding  that 
the  sensory  effect  produced  was  comparable  in 
intensity  to  that  which  would  have  been  caused 
had  a  real  figure  walked  across  the  room.  Percep- 
tion is  so  largely  a  psychical  process  that  it  is  difficult 
in  any  particular  case  to  assign  a  definite  value  to  the 
sensory  element.  And  in  a  case  of  this  kind,  where, 
as  appears  to  be  generally  the  case  with  telepathic 
hallucinations,  the  vision  is  of  brief  duration,  the 
difficulty  is,  of  course,  increased. 

The  hallucination  in  this,  as  in  the  previous  case, 
occurred  some  hours  before  the  death,  and  the 
evidential  value  of  the  coincidence  is  so  far  lessened. 
But  it  is  perhaps  worth  while  pointing  out  that  we 
have  no  warrant  in  theory  for  concluding  that  in 
a  case  of  death  after  prolonged  illness  the  actual 
moment  of  dissolution  is  more  favourable  for  the 
initiation  of  a  telepathic  impulse  than  any  moment 
in  the  hours  or  days  of  illness  preceding  death  ;  nor, 
if  due  allowance  be  made  for  the  tendency  to  exag- 
gerate the  closeness  of  coincidence,  is  it  clear  that 
there  is  sufficient  evidence  at  present  to  support  any 
such  conclusion.  On  the  other  hand,  in  cases  of 
accident  or  momentary  illness,  we  have  more  than 
one  case  where  the  impression  is  shown,  on  good 
evidence,  to  have  occurred  within,  at  most,  an  hour 
of  death.1  In  the  narrative  which  follows,  the  vision, 
it  will  be  seen,  took  place  some  days  before  the  actual 

0 
?  See,  for  instance,  Phantasms  of  the  Living,  cases  28,  79,  etc. 


260  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

death,  during  the  crisis  of  a  serious  illness,  of  which 
the  percipient  was  not  at  the  time  aware. 

No.  74, — From  MRS.  McALPiNE,  Garscadden, 
Bearsden,  Glasgow. 

The  following  account  was  enclosed  in  a  letter, 
dated  April  I2th,  1892.  We  had  previously  received 
a  somewhat  briefer  account,  dated  May  /th,  1891, 
which  agrees  in  all  essential  particulars  with  the  one 
printed  below: — 

"On  the  25th  March  1891  my  husband  and  I  were  staying  at 
Furness  Abbey  Hotel,  Barrow-in-Furness,  with  a  friend  of  ours, 
the  late  Mr.  A.  D.  Bryce  Douglas,  of  Seafield  Tower,  Ardrossan. 
He  was  managing  director  of  the  *  Naval  Construction  Arma- 
ment Company,'  and  had  resided  at  Furness  Abbey  Hotel  for 
some  eighteen  months  or  more.  He  had  invited  us,  along  with 
a  number  of  other  friends,  to  the  launch  of  the  Empress  of 
China.  We  breakfasted  with  Mr.  Bryce  Douglas  on  the  day 
of  the  launch,  the  25th,  and  afterwards  saw  the  launch,  had 
luncheon  at  the  shipyard,  and  returned  to  the  hotel.  He 
appeared  to  be  in  his  usual  health  and  spirits  (he  was  a  power- 
fully-built man,  and  justly  proud  of  his  fine  constitution).  The 
following  day  (Thursday)  he  left  with  a  party  of  gentlemen,  to 
sail  from  Liverpool  to  Ardrossan,  on  the  trial  trip  of  the  Empress 
of  Japan  (another  large  steamer  which  had  been  built  at  his 
yard). 

"  We  remained  on  at  the  hotel  for  some  days  with  our  son 
Bob,  aged  twenty-three,  who  was  staying  there,  superintending 
work  which  Mr.  Me  Alpine  was  carrying  on  at  Barrow. 

uOn  the  Monday  night,  the  3oth,  I  went  upstairs  after  dinner. 
On  my  way  down  again  I  saw  Mr.  Bryce  Douglas  Standing  in 
the  doorway  of  his  sitting-room.  I  saw  him  quite  distinctly. 
He  looked  at  me  with  a  sad  expression.  He  was  wearing  a  cap 
which  I  had  never  seen  him  wear.  I  walked  on  and  left  him 
standing  there.  It  was  then  about  ten  minutes  to  eight.  I  told 
my  husband  and  Bob.  We  all  felt  alarmed,  and  we  immediately 
sent  the  following  telegram,  'How  is  Mr.  Bryce  Douglas?'  to 
Miss  Caldwell,  his  sister-in-law,  who  kept  house  for  him  at 
Seafield.  It  was  too  late  for  a  reply  that  night.  On  Tuesday 
morning  we  received  a  wire  from  her;  it  ran  thus:  'Mr.  Bryce 
Douglas  dangerously  ill.'  That  telegram  was  the  first  intimation 
of  his  illness  which  reached  Barrow.  As  will  be  seen  in  the 
account  of  his  illness  and  death  in  the  Barrow  News>  he  died 


SPONTANEOUS  HALLUCINATIONS.  26 1 

on  the  following  Sunday,  and  we  afterwards  ascertained  from 
Miss  Caldwell  that  he  was  unconscious  on  Monday  evening,  at 
the  time  I  saw  him. 

"  My  husband  and  son  can  corroborate  this,  and  I  have  also 
letters  which  bear  out  my  statements." 

Mrs.  Me  Alpine  enclosed  a  copy  of  the  Barrow 
News  for  April  nth,  1891,  containing  a  memoir  of 
Mr.  Bryce  Douglas,  and  a  full  account  of  his  last 
illness  and  death.  It  appears  from  this  account  that 
he  left  Barrow  on  Thursday,  March  26th,  to  join  the 
steamer  Empress  of  Japan,  He  was  noticed  by  his 
friends  to  be  far  from  well  on  Wednesday,  the  previous 
day,  on  the  occasion  of  the  launch  of  the  Empress  of 
China,  and  was  advised  to  go  home.  He  did  not  do 
so,  however,  until  the  Sunday,  when  he  was  put  ashore 
at  Ardrossan,  and  walked  home  to  Seafield — a  distance 
of  nearly  two  miles.  His  medical  man  was  sent  for 
the  same  day,  and  the  case  was  considered  serious 
from  the  first,  and  on  the  following  Thursday  the 
doctors  pronounced  it  hopeless.  He  died  on  April 
5th,  at  about  5  A.M. 

From  the  evidence  which  follows  it  seems  clear  that 
if  any  anxiety  as  to  his  health  was  felt  before  he  left 
Barrow,  as  suggested  in  the  newspaper  report,  Mrs. 
McAlpine  knew  nothing  of  it. 

Mr,  Myers  writes: — 

"  I  discussed  the  incident  connected  with  the  death  of  Mr. 
Bryce  Douglas  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  McAlpine  and  Mr.  McAlpine, 
Jun.,  on  February  24th,  1892.  I  believe  that  their  evidence  has 
been  very  carefully  given.  Mr.  McAlpine  knew  Mr.  Bryce 
Douglas  intimately.  Mr.  Bryce  Douglas  was  a  robust  and* 
vigorous  man,  and  disliked  ever  to  be  supposed  to  be  ill.  Mr. 
McAlpine  therefore  felt  great  unwillingness  to  telegraph  to  him 
about  his  health,  but  from  his  previous  knowledge  of  phenomena 
occurring  to  Mrs.  McAlpine,  he  felt  sure  that  her  vision  must  be 
in  some  sense  veridical." 

Mrs.  McAlptne'g  husband  and  his  son  corroborate 
as  follows: — 


262  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

"April  1892. 

"I  was  at  Barrow  on  the  25th  of  March  of  last  year  (1891), 
and  distinctly  remember  the  incident  of  the  following  Monday 
night.  I  can  bear  testimony  to  the  statements  made  by  my 
wife  and  son. 

"ROBERT  MCALPINE." 

"GARSCADDEN  HOUSE,  April  ^th^  1892. 
"  I  was  living  for  several  months  in  the  Furness  Abbey  Hotel, 
at  Barrow-in-Furness,  and  I  remember  father  and  mother  coming 
for  a  few  days  in  order  to  see  the  launch  of  the  Empress  of 
China  on  the  25th  of  March  1891,  and  on  the  following  day 
(Thursday)  Mr.  Bryce  Douglas  (who  was  then  in  his  usual 
health)  left  with  a  party  of  friends  on  the  trial  trip  of  the 
Empress  of  Japan.  I  also  distinctly  remember  that  the  follow- 
ing Monday  night  (3oth)  my  father  and  I  were  sitting  at  the 
drawing-room  fire  after  dinner,  and  mother  came  in  looking 
very  pale  and  startled,  and  said  she  had  been  upstairs  and  had 
seen  Mr.  Bryce  Douglas  standing  at  the  door  of  his  sitting-room 
(he  had  used  this  sitting-room  for  nearly  two  years).  Both  my 
father  and  I  felt  anxious,  and  after  some  discussion  we  sent  a 
telegram  to  Mr.  Bryce  Douglas's  residence  at  Ardrossan  asking 
how  he  was,  and  the  following  morning  had  the  reply,  '  Keeping 
better,  but  not  out  of  danger,'  or  words  to  that  effect.  I  can 
assert  positively  that  no  one  in  Barrow  knew  of  his  illness  until 
after  the  receipt  of  that  telegram. 

"  ROBERT  MCALPINE,  JUN." 

Letters  corroborating  the  above  account  have  also 
been  received  from  Miss  Caldwell,  sister-in-law  to 
Mr.  Bryce  Douglas,  to  whom  the  telegram  was  sent, 
and  who  writes :  "  I  was  very  much  surprised  .  at 
receiving  it ; "  from  Mrs.  Scarlett,  the  wife  of  the 
proprietor  of  the  Furness  Abbey  Hotel,  and  from 
Miss  Charlton,  of  Barrow-in-Furness,  both  of  whom 
yvere  cognisant  of  the  circumstances  at  the  time.1 

Mrs.  McAlpine  has  had  several  other  apparently 
telepathic  experiences,  one  of  them  a  vision  coinciding 
with  the  death  of  the  infant  child  of  her  brother. 

In  the  next  case  the  vision  occurred  about  two 
hours  after  the  actual  death. 

1  These  letters  will  be  found  in  full  in  the  account  of  the  case  pub- 
lished in  Proc*  &P.1\.,  vol.  x.,  part  xxvi. 


SPONTANEOUS  HALLUCINATIONS.  263 

No.  75.— From  Miss  MABEL  GORE  BOOTH. 

"LISSADELL,  SLIGO,  February  1891. 

"On  the  loth  of  April  1889,  at  about  half-past  nine  o'clock 
A.M.,  my  youngest  brother  and  I  were  going  down  a  short  flight 
of  stairs  leading  to  the  kitchen,  to  fetch  food  for  my  chickens, 
as  usual.  We  were  about  half-way  down,  my  brother  a  few 
steps  in  advance  of  me,  when  he  suddenly  said,  *  Why,  there's 
John  Blaney ;  I  didn't  know  he  was  in  the  house  V  John 
Blaney  was  a  boy  who  lived  not  far  from  us,  and  he  had  been 
employed  in  the  house  as  hall-boy  not  long  before.  I  said  that 
I  was  sure  it  was  not  he  (for  I  knew  he  had  left  some  months 
previously  on  account  of  ill-health),  and  looked  down  into  the 
passage,  but  saw  no  one.  The  passage  was  a  long  one,  with  a 
rather  sharp  turn  in  it,  so  we  ran  quickly  down  the  last  few 
steps  and  looked  round  the  corner,  but  nobody  was  there,  and 
the  only  door  he  could  have  gone  through  was  shut.  As  we 
went  upstairs  my  brother  said,  *  How  pale  and  ill  John  looked, 
and  why  did  he  stare  so?'  I  asked  what  he  was  doing.  My 
brother  answered  that  he  had  his  sleeves  turned  up,  and  was 
wearing  a  large  green  apron,  such  as  the  footmen  always  wear 
at  their  work.  An  hour  or  two  afterwards  I  asked  my  maid 
how  long  John  Blaney  had  been  back  in  the  house?  She 
seemed  much  surprised,  and  said,  '  Didn't  you  hear,  miss,  that 
he  died  this  morning?'  On  inquiry  we  found  he  had  died 
about  two  hours  before  my  brother  saw  him.  My  mother  did 
not  wish  that  my  brother  should  be  told  this,  but  he  heard  of  it 
somehow,  and  at  once  declared  that  he  must  have  seen  his 
ghost. 

"MABEL  OLIVE  GORE  BOOTH." 

The  percipient's  independent  account  is  as 
follows : — 

"March  1891. 

"  We  were  going  downstairs  to  get  food  for  Mabel's  fowl, 
when  I  saw  John  Blaney  walking  round  the  corner.  I  said  to 
Mabel,  *  That's  John  Blaney  1 '  but  she  could  not  see  him. 
When  we  came  up  afterwards  we  found  he  was  dead.  He 
seemed  to  me  to  look  rather  ill.  He  looked  yellow ;  his  eyes 
looked  hollow,  and  he  had  a  green  apron  on. 

"MORDAUNT  GORE  BOOTH." 

We  have  received  the  following  confirmation  of  the 

date  of  death  : — 

• 

"  I  certify  from  the  parish  register  of  deaths  that  John  Blaney 


264  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

(Dunfore)  was  interred  on  the  I2th  day  of  April  1889,  having 
died  on  the  loth  day  of  April  1889. 

"P.  J.  SHEMAGHS,  C.C. 
"The  Presbytery,  Ballingal,  Sligo, 
"  loth  February  1891." 

Mr.  Myers  originally  received  an  account  of  the 
incident  viva  voce  from  Lady  Gore  Booth,  and  sub- 
sequently at  his  request  the  percipient  and  his  sister, 
aged  at  the  time  ten  and  fifteen  respectively,  wrote 
the  accounts  given  above. 

Lady  Gore  Booth  writes  : — 

"May  3ij/,  1890. 

"  When  my  little  boy  came  upstairs  and  told  us  he  had  seen 
John  Blancy,  we  thought  nothing  of  it  till  some  hours  after, 
when  we  heard  that  he  was  dead.  Then,  for  fear  of  frightening 
the  children,  I  avoided  any  allusion  to  what  he  had  told  us,  and 
asked  every  one  else  to  do  the  same.  Probably  by  now  he  has 
forgotten  all  about  it,  but  it  certainly  was  very  remarkable, 
especially  as  only  one  child  saw  him,  and  they  were  standing 
together.  The  place  where  he  seems  to  have  appeared  was  in 
the  passage  outside  the  pantry  door,  where  John  Blaney's  work 
always  took  him.  My  boy  is  a  very  matter-of-fact  sort  of  boy, 
and  I  never  heard  of  his  having  any  other  hallucination." 

^  The  interval  in  this  case  between  the  death  and  the 
vision  may  probably  be  explained  as  due  to  the 
telepathic  influence  received  from  the  dying  boy 
having  remained  latent  in  the  percipient's  mind, 
awaiting  a  favourable  opportunity  for  emerging  to 
consciousness.  But  it  seems  possible  that  the  mes- 
sage may  have  come,  not  from  the  dying  boy,  but 
from  some  member  of  the  household  who  was  aware 
of  the  death.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  Miss  Gore  Booth 
did  not  share  her  brother's  experience. 

Hallucinations  Affecting  Two  Senses. 

So  far1  we  have  dealt  with  hallucinations  of  one 
sense  only.  In  the  next  two  cases,  it  will  be  seen, 
both  sight  and  hearing  appear  to  Have  been  affected. 


SPONTANEOUS  HALLUCINATIONS.  265 

No.  76. — From  the  REV.  MATTHEW  FROST. 

"  BOWERS  GlFFORD,  ESSEX,  January  30^,  1891. 
"The  first  Thursday  in  April  1881,  while  sitting  at  tea  with 
my  back  to  the  window  and  talking  with  my  wife  in  the  usual 
way,  I  plainly  heard  a  rap  at  the  window,  and  looking  round  I 
said  to  my  wife,  *  Why,  there's  my  grandmother,'  and  went  to 
the  door,  but  could  not  see  any  one ;  and  still  feeling  sure  it  was 
my  grandmother,  and  knowing,  though  eighty-three  years  of  age, 
she  was  very  active  and  fond  of  a  joke,  I  went  round  the  house, 
but  could  not  see  any  one.  My  wife  did  not  hear  it.  On  the 
following  Saturday  I  had  news  my  grandmother  died  in  York- 
shire about  half-an-hour  before  the  time  I  heard  the  rapping. 
The  last  time  I  saw  her  alive  I  promised,  if  well,  I  would 
attend  her  funeral ;  that  [was]  some  two  years  before.  I  was  in 
good  health  [and]  had  no  trouble,  [age]  twenty-six  years,  I 
did  not  know  that  my  grandmother  was  ill." 

Mrs.  Frost  writes  : — 

"January  30^,  1891. 

"  I  beg  to  certify  that  I  perfectly  remember  all  the  circum- 
stances my  husband  has  named,  but  I  heard  and  saw  nothing 
myself." 

The  house  (seen  by  Mrs.  Sidgwick)  in  which  Mr. 
Frost  was  living  when  the  event  occurred  stands  some 
way  back  from  the  road  in  a  garden,  and  the  door 
into  the  garden  opens  out  of  the  sitting-room,  so  that 
he  must  have  got  to  the  door  much  too  quickly,  if  he 
went  at  once,  for  any  one  to  have  got  away  unseen  by 
him. 

Professor  Sidgwick  called  on  Mr.  Frost  in  June 
1892,  and  learned  from  him  that  he  had  last  seen 
his  grandmother  in  1878,  on  which  occasion  she  had 
promised,  if  possible,  to  appear  to  him  at  her  death. 
On  first  seeing  the  figure  Mr.  Frost  thought  that  his 
grandmother  had  actually  come  in  the  flesh  to  surprise 
him.  It  was  full  daylight,  and  had  there  been  a  real 
knock  and  a  real  presence  Mrs.  Frost  must  have  both 
heard  and  seen.  Mr.  Frost  had  no  cause  for  anxiety 
about  his  grandmother,  and  has  had  no  other  experi- 
ence of  this  kind.  News  of  the  death  came  by  letter, 


266  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

and  Mrs.  Frost   remembers  the  letter,  and  that  she 
noticed  the  coincidence  at  the  time.    . 

In  the  next  case  the  order  of  perception  is 
reversed ;  the  visual  preceded  the  auditory  image. 
The  narrative  was  procured  for  us  by  M.  Aksakof, 
of  6  Nevsky  Prospect,  St.  Petersburg,  who  also 
translated  the  original  Russian  into  French,  from 
which  we  have  translated  it  into  English. 

No.  77. — From  M.  A . 


"  It  was  at  Milan,  on  the  loth  (22nd)  of  October  1888.  I 
was  staying  at  the  Hotel  Ancora.  After  dinner,  at  about  seven 
o'clock,  I  was  seated  on  the  sofa,  reading  a  newspaper.  My 
wife  was  resting  in  the  same  room  on  a  couch,  behind  a  curtain. 
The  room  was  lighted  by  a  lamp  upon  the  table  near  which  I 
was  sitting  reading.  Suddenly  I  saw  against  the  back-ground 
of  the  door,  which  was  opposite  me,  my  father's  face.  He  wore 
as  usual  a  black  surtout,  and  was  deadly  pale.  At  that  moment 
I  heard  quite  close  to  my  ear  a  voice  which  said  to  me,  '  A 
telegram  is  coming  to  say  your  father  is  dead.'  All  this  only 
took  a  few  seconds.  I  started  up  and  rushed  towards  my  wife, 
but  not  to  startle  her  I  said  nothing  to  her  about  it.  To  explain 
my  sudden  movement  I  exclaimed  '  Look,  do  you  not  see  that 
the  kettle  is  boiling  over ! '  .  .  .  On  the  evening  of  the  same 
clay,  about  eleven  o'clock,  we  were  taking  tea  in  the  company 
of  several  other  people,  among  whom  were  Madame  Y.,  her 
daughter  E.  Y.,  formerly  an  actress  at  the  Court  Theatre,  and 
Mademoiselle  M.,  who  is  now  living  in  Florence.  All  at  once 


telegram  < 

these  words,  '  Papa  dead  suddenly. — Olga.'  It  was  a  telegram 
from  my  sister  living  at  St.  Petersburg.  I  learned  later  that  my 
father  had  committed  suicide  on  the  morning  of  the  same  day. 

"(Signed)       E.  A." 
Madame  A.  writes: — 

"  I  was  present  at  the  time,  and  I  testify  to  the  accuracy  of 
the  account." 

M.   Aksakof  wrote   to  us   th#t  he   had   seen   the 
original  telegram,  which  ran — 


SPONTANEOUS  HALLUCINATIONS.  267 

"  Ricevuto  il  22,1 1888.  Milano,  Petersbourg,  data  22,1  ore  e 
minute,  8.40.  c  Papa  mort  subitement. — Olga.' " 

Another  case,  in  which  the  senses  affected  were 
those  of  touch  and  hearing,  has  been  given  to  us 
by  Mr.  Malleson.  In  1874  or  1875  he  went  for  a 
short  sea  voyage,  taking  with  him  his  young  son. 
On  the  night  of  his  departure,  while  in  a  dreamy, 
half-conscious  state,  he  imagined  that  his  son  had 
fallen  overboard,  and  that  he  himself  was  bringing 
the  sad  news  to  his  wife.  On  his  return  home  he 
learned  that  on  that  night  Mrs.  Malleson  had  been 
awakened  by  feeling  some  one  leaning  over  her. 
She  put  out  her  arm  and,  as  she  thought,  touched 
her  husband's  coat.  She  had  no  doubt  that  it  was 
her  husband's  bodily  presence,  spoke  to  him,  and 
heard  him  answer,  "  Yes,  I  have  come  back."  But 
on  her  continuing,  "  Where  is  Eddy  ? "  she  received 
no  reply,  and  felt  much  alarmed.  There  are  several 
instances  recorded  of  tactile  hallucinations  accom- 
panying visual  and  auditory  phantasms.2 

1  M.  Aksakof  explains  that  the  name  of  the  month  (October)  was 
omitted,  through  a  mistake  on  the  part  of  the  telegraph  clerk. 

2  Phantasms  of  the  Living,  vol.  i.  pp.  434-445;  vol.  ii.  p.  134,  etc.; 
and/Vw.  S.P.&,  etc. 


268 


CHAPTER  XII. 

COLLECTIVE   HALLUCINATIONS. 

WE  have  now  to  discuss  that  numerous  class  of  cases 
in  which  the  phantasm  was  perceived  by  two  or  more 
persons.  The  difficulties  of  interpretation  which  such 
cases  present  are  enhanced  for  us  by  the  various  defects 
to  which  the  evidence  is  here  peculiarly  liable.  Many 
so-called  cases  of  collective  apparition,  especially 
when  the  figure  is  seen  out-of-doors,  were  probably 
real  men  and  women.1  In  others  we  have  to  deal 
with  a  collective  illusion,  a  quasi-hallucinatory  super- 
structure built  up  by  each  witness,  aided  by  hints  from 
the  others,  on  a.  common  sensory  basis.  Such,  for 
instance,  appears  to  us  the  most  probable  interpreta- 
tion of  the  following  singular  case. 

From  MRS.  ALDERSON. 

"  My  son  and  I  were  staying  in  the  town  of  Bonchurch  (Isle  of 
Wight)  last  Easter  vacation  (1886).  Our  lodgings  were  close 
to  the  sea,  and  the  garden  of  our  house  abutted  on  the  beach, 
and  there  were  no  trees  or  bushes  in  it  high  enough  to  intercept 

1  Thus  we  have  a  case,  regarded  by  the  narrator  as  hallucinatory,  in 
which  three  persons  saw  a  figure  ascending  the  staircase  of  a  country 
rectory.  The  occurrence  took  place  shortly  after  the  return  of  the 
family  from  church,  and  the  figure  was  supposed  to  be  that  of  the 
rector,  until  it  was  ascertained  that  he  was  at  the  time  in  another  part 
of  the  house.  As,  however,  it  was  dark  and  the  head  of  the  figure 
could  not  be  seen,  the  identification  could  hardly  have  been  complete, 
and  as  no  search  was  made  in  the  upper  part  of  the  house,  it  seems 
possible  that  the  figure  was  that  of  some  person  who  had  gained 
entrance  to  the  house  during  the  absence  of  the  family  at  church. 


COLLECTIVE  HALLUCINATIONS.  269 

our  view.  The  evening  of  Easter  Sunday  was  so  fine  that  when 
Miss  Jowett  (the  landlady's  daughter)  brought  in  the  lamp,  I 
begged  her  not  to  pull  down  the  blinds,  and  lay  on  the  sofa 
looking  out  at  the  sea,  while  my  son  was  reading  at  the  table. 
Owing  to  a  letter  I  had  just  received  from  my  sister  at  home, 
stating  that  one  of  the  servants  had  again  seen  *  the  old  lady/ 
my  thoughts  had  been  directed  towards  ghosts  and  such  things. 
But  I  was  not  a  little  astonished  when,  on  presently  looking  out 
of  the  window,  I  saw  the  figure  of  a  woman  standing  at  the 
edge  of  the  verandah.  She  appeared  to  be  a  broad  woman,  and 
not  tall  (Mrs.  A.  is  tall),  and  to  wear  an  old-fashioned  bonnet, 
and  white  gloves  on  her  closed  hands.  As  it  was  dark  the 
figure  was  only  outlined  against  the  sky,  and  I  could  not  distin- 
guish any  other  details.  It  was,  however,  opaque,  and  not 
in  any  way  transparent,  just  as  if  it  had  been  a  real  person. 
I  looked  at  it  for  some  time,  and  then  looked  away.  When, 
after  a  time,  I  looked  again,  the  woman's  hands  had  dis- 
appeared behind  what  appeared  to  be  a  white  marble  cross, 
with  a  little  bit  of  the  top  broken  off,  and  with  a  railing  on  one 
side  of  the  woman  and  the  cross,  such  as  one  sometimes  sees 
in  graveyards. 

"After  looking  at  this  apparition,  which  remained  motionless, 
for  some  time,  about  twenty  minutes,  perhaps,  I  asked  my  son 
[then  an  undergiaduate  at  B.N.C]  to  come  and  to  look  out  of  the 
window,  and  tell  me  what  he  saw.  He  exclaimed,  '  What  an 
uncanny  sight  1 '  and  described  the  woman  and  the  cross  exactly 
as  I  saw  it.  I  then  rang  the  bell,  and  when  Miss  J.  answered 
it,  I  asked  her  also  to  look  put  of  the  window  and  tell  me  what 
she  saw,  and  she  also  described  the  woman  and  the  cross,  just 
ns  they  appeared  to  my  son  and  myself.  Some  one  suggested 
that  it  might  be  a  reflection  of  some  sort,  and  we  all  looked 
about  the  room  to  see  whether  there  was  anything  in  it  that 
could  cause  such  a  reflection,  but  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
there  was  nothing  to  account  for  it." 

Mr.  Alderson  writes: — 

"  Staying  at  B.  (Isle  of  Wight)  during  the  Easter  vacation  of 
1886,  I  remember  distinctly  seeing  an  apparition  in  the  form  of 
a  woman  with  her  hands  clasped  on  the  top  of  a  cross.  The 
cross  looked  old  and  worn,  as  one  sees  in  churchyards.  My 
mother  drew  my  attention  to  the  figure,  and  after  we  had 
watched  it  for  some  time  we  rang  the  bell  and  asked  the 
servant  if  she  saw  the  figure.  She  said  she  did.  I  then 
went  out  to  the  verandah  (where  the  figure  was),  and  imme- 
diately it  vanished.  . 

"  E.  H.  ALDERSON." 


270  APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

A  corresponding  account  of  the  incident  has  been 
received  from  Miss  Jowett,  the  landlady's  daughter. 
We  owe  the  accounts  of  the  incident  to  Mr.  F.  Schiller, 
who  investigated  the  matter  for  the  Oxford  Phasma- 
tological  Society. 

The  persistency  of  the  vision  in  this  case  is  a 
feature  very  rarely  found  in  cases  of  undoubted 
hallucination,  and  the  fact  that  it  was  only  seen 
through  glass  suggests  that  the  whole  appearance  was 
due  to  a  reflection  of  some  kind,  although  it  must  be 
admitted  that  this  explanation,  which  was  considered 
and  rejected  by  the  percipients  at  the  time,  cannot  be 
accommodated  to  the  facts  without  difficulty. 

In  the  epidemics  of  religious  hallucination  so 
common  in  the  Middle  Ages,  and  still  occurring  from 
time  to  time  in  Catholic  countries,  it  would  appear 
that  as  a  rule  there  is  no  objective  basis  for  the 
perception.  When,  as  at  Knock,  in  Ireland,  a  few 
years  ago,  the  figure  of  the  Virgin  or  a  Saint  is  said 
to  have  been  seen  by  a  large  number  of  persons 
simultaneously,  it  seems  probable  that  in  those  who 
really  saw  the  figure  the  hallucination  was  due  to 
repeated  verbal  suggestions  acting  on  minds  which, 
under  the  influence  of  strong  emotion,  were  tem- 
porarily in  a  state  analogous  to  that  of  trance. 
The  nearest  analogy  to  such  cases  is  no  doubt  to  be 
found  in  hypnotism.  A  collective  hallucination  can 
be  imposed  upon  a  whole  roomful  of  hypnotised 
persons  by  the  mere  command  of  the  operator.  But 
not  the  most  explicit  verbal  suggestion — si  vera  est 
fabula— could  make  the  courtiers  in  the  fairy  tale  see 
the  king's  clothes ;  and  there  is  no  evidence  that  with 
normal  persons  in  full  possession  of  their  ordinary 
faculties  any  hints  derivable  from  look,  word,  or 
gesture  could  suffice  to  originate  an  instantaneous 
hallucination.  Still,  the  possibility  of  such  an  ex- 
planation under  certain  conditions  should  perhaps  be 
kept  in  view.  (See  later,  Chapter  XVI.) 

A   possible  explanation  of  a  different   kind  has 


COLLECTIVE   HALLUCINATIONS.  27 1 

been  already  illustrated  by  the  story  quoted  on  page 
153,  where  it  was  shown  that  a  solitary  hallucination 
had  grown  in  the  course  of  five-and-twenty  years  into 
a  collective  vision.  The  narrator  in  this  case  was  a 
child  at  the  time  of  the  alleged  experience.  Children 
and  uneducated  persons  generally,  who  are  not  prone 
to  analyse  their  own  sensations,  seem  liable  after  a 
certain  interval  to  mistake  the  image  called  up  by 
another's  recital  for  an  actual  experience  of  their  own; 
and  this  is  especially  likely  to  occur  when  the  auditor 
was  present  at  the  time  of  the  experience  or  familiar 
with  the  scene  of  the  occurrence.  Indeed,  most  per- 
sons who  visualise  with  moderate  facility  are  probably 
liable  to  this  form  of  mistake  on  a  small  scale.  I  had 
about  five  years  since  an  example  of  this  in  my  own 
case.  A  friend  had  described  to  me  minutely  some 
simple  apparatus  of  his  own  invention.  About  a  year 
later  he  brought  the  apparatus  to  London  and  offered 
to  show  it  to  me.  I  replied  that  I  had  already  seen 
it ;  but  on  being  confronted  with  it  I  found  the  pro- 
portions and  general  appearance  of  the  actual  object 
quite  unlike  my  mental  image  of  it.  I  had  in  fact 
never  seen  the  object,  but  the  image  which  I  had 
mentally  constructed  to  enable  me  to  follow  my 
friend's  description  a  year  before  remained  so  vivid 
as  to  lead  me  to  believe  that  it  was  founded  on  actual 
sensation.  But  a  sensory  hallucination  is  too  strik- 
ing and  unusual  an  experience  to  be  readily  feigned, 
and  it  is  very  improbable  that  the  memory  of  educated 
persons,  at  any  rate,  would  be  untrustworthy  as 
regards  their  recent  experiences  of  the  kind.  As 
already  explained,  the  accounts  of  this  and  other 
forms  of  telepathic  affection  included  in  this  book 
have  in  almost  all  cases  been  written  down  within 
ten  years  of  the  event. 

When  the  fullest  allowance  has  been  made  for  all 
possible  explanations  we  find  a  considerable  number 
of  cases  remaining  o^  which  no  other  account  can  be 
given  than  that  they  are  apparitions,  due  to  no  ascer- 


2/2  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

tained  cause,  which  are  perceived  by  two  or  more 
persons  simultaneously.  That  the  collective  percep- 
tion proves  the  objective,  or — to  use  a  less  ambi- 
guous word — the  material  existence  of  the  thing  per- 
ceived, is  probably  held  now  by  few  persons  outside 
the  ranks  of  professed  mystics.  Apart  from  the 
theoretical  difficulties  of  such  a  hypothesis — difficulties 
which  have  by  no  means  been  surmounted  by  the 
invocation  of  fixed  ether,  intercalary  vortex  rings, 
space  of  four  dimensions,  and  other  subtler  forms  of 
the  theory  evolved  in  recent  times, — it  is  to  be  noted 
that  no  facts  of  any  significance  have  been  adduced 
to  support  it.  There  is  at  present  no  trustworthy 
evidence  that  an  apparition  has  ever  been  weighed 
or  photographed,1  or  submitted  to  spectroscopic  or 
chemical  analysis.  But,  indeed,  the  theory  betrays 
its  own  origin  in  a  prescientific  age;  and  without 
formal  destruction  by  argument  it  has  shared  in  the 
euthanasia  which  has  overtaken  many  other  pious 
opinions  found  inadequate  to  the  facts.  The  pheno- 
mena which  it  professes  to  explain  are  paralleled  in 
all  their  essential  features  by  other  phenomena,  for 
which  even  its  supporters  would  hardly  be  rash  enough 
to  claim  substantial  reality;  and  as  the  phantasms 
now  to  be  discussed  bear  in  all  points  a  close 
resemblance  to  those  already  described  as  occurring 
to  solitary  percipients,  probably  no  one  who  accepts 
the  one  class  of  appearances  as  hallucinatory  will 
hesitate  to  accept  the  other. 

But  when  the  hallucinatory  character  of  collec- 
tively-perceived, or,  as  they  may  be  styled  for  brevity, 
"collective"  phantasms  is  recognised,  there  are  diffi- 
culties of  interpretation  to  be  dealt  with.  On  the 
telepathic  hypothesis  there  are  two  modes  in  which  a 
collective  hallucination  may  be  conceived  to  originate: 
(a)  it  may  be  communicated  direct  from  a  third  person 
to  each  of  the  percipients;  or  (£)  it  may  be  communi- 

1  See  the  article  on  Spirit  Photographt,  by  Mrs.  Henry  Sidgwick, 
Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  vii.  pp.  268-289. 


COLLECTIVE   HALLUCINATIONS. 

cated  by  telepathic  infection  from  one  percipient  to 
another.  The  first  explanation  involves  in  most  cases, 
as  Mr.  Gurney  has  pointed  out  {Phantasms  of  the 
Living,  vol.  ii.  pp.  171,  172),  serious  theoretical 
difficulties.  For  on  the  view  to  which  we  are  led  by 
a  review  of  all  the  evidence,  a  telepathic  hallucination, 
like  any  other,  is,  as  a  rule,  the  work  of  the  percipient's 
mind,  and  is  not  transferred  ready  made  from  the 
agent.  As  such  it  is  frequently  of  slow  growth,  and 
there  are  grounds  for  believing  that  it  is  sometimes 
not  externalised  for  the  percipient's  senses  until  some 
hours  after  the  receipt  of  the  original  telepathic  im- 
pulse. We  should  hardly  expect,  therefore,  to  find 
two  percipients  independently  developing  similar 
hallucinations,  and  at  the  same  moment  But  in  most 
of  the  cases  of  collective  hallucination  hitherto  re- 
ported, the  hallucinations  have  been,  so  far  as  could 
be  ascertained,  similar  and  simultaneous,  so  as  indeed 
to  suggest  a  real  figure  rather  than  a  hallucination. 
Moreover,  in  well-attested  recent  narratives  it  rarely 
happens  that  a  connection  between  the  hallucination 
and  any  unusual  state  of  the  person  represented  is 
clearly  established  ;  whilst  in  many,  perhaps  most 
cases,  the  hallucination  has  not  been  recognised  as 
resembling  any  person  known  to  either  percipient,  and 
has  in  some  instances  been  purely  grotesque.  In 
most  cases,  therefore,  it  seems  easier  to  believe  that 
we  have  to  deal  with  a  contagious  hallucination,  which, 
whether  initiated  by  a  telepathic  impulse,  or  purely 
subjective  in  its  origin,  has  been  transferred  tele- 
pathically  from  the  original  percipient  to  others  in  his 
company  at  the  time.  In  some  cases,  indeed,  it  is  no 
doubt  permissible,  as  suggested  by  Mr.  Gurney,  to 
conjecture  that  the  minds  of  all  the  percipients  may 
have  been  directly  influenced  by  the  agent,  and 
that  subsequently  an  overflow  from  the  mind  of  one 
of  the  percipients  may  have  served  to  reinforce  the 
original  impulse,  and,  determine  the  exact  moment  of 
the  explosion  in  his  co-percipients,  just  as  the  current 

18 


274  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

regulates  the  exact  hour  of  striking  irf  electrically 
synchronised  clocks.  Or  again,  the  mind  of  each 
percipient  may  react  upon  the  others.  There  are, 
however,  a  few  cases  where  the  percipients  appear  to 
have  had  experiences  relating  to  the  same  event 
neither  precisely  similar  nor  simultaneous,  which 
seem  to  require  the  hypothesis  of  an  impulse  in  each 
case  directly  derived  from  the  person  represented. 
Some  cases  of  the  kind  are  given  in  Phantasms  of  the 
Living  (vol.  i.  p.  362 ;  vol.  ii.  173-183),  and  others  will 
be  cited  in  the  latter  part  of  this  chapter.  It  will  be 
more  convenient,  however,  to  begin  by  giving  ex- 
amples of  the  ordinary  type  of  collective  hallucina- 
tion. 

Collective  Auditory  Hallucinations. 
No.  78.— From  MR.  C  H.  GARY. 

"SECRETARY'S  OFFICE,  GENERAL  POST  OFFICE, 

2<)th  March  1892. 

"  At  Bow,  London,  on  the  8th  March  1875,  at  about  8.30  P.M., 
I  heard  a  voice  say,  *  Joseph,  Joseph.'  I  was  talking  with  my 
father  and  cousin  (Joseph  Gary)  about  the  battle  of  Balaclava. 
I  was  in  good  health,  etc.  My  age  was  nearly  thirteen.  All 
three  of  us  heard  the  voice,  which  we  suppose  to  have  been 
that  of  Joseph's  grandmother."1 

In  conversation,  Mr.  Gary  explained  to  me  that  the 
voice  was  not  recognised  by  any  of  those  who  heard 
it.  It  was  indeed  at  first  mistaken  for  the  voice  of 
Mrs.  Gary  (Mr.  C.  H.  Gary's  mother),  who  was  at  the 
time  in  an  adjoining  room,  but  who  had  not  spoken. 
A  telegram  announcing  the  grandmother's  death  was 
received  on  the  day  following,  and  Mr.  Joseph  Gary 
then  said  that  the  voice  must  have  been  that  of  his 
grandmother.  Mr.  C.  H.  Gary  had  never  seen  this 
lady. 

1  This  account  was  originally  written  in  answer  to  a  series  of 
questions  on  a  "  census  "  form.  A  few  connecting  words  have  been 
inserted  in  order  to  make  it  read  consecutively. 


COLLECTIVE  HALLUCINATIONS.  275 

Mr.  R.  H.  Gary  writes  from  49  Gladsmuir  Road, 

London,  N. : — 

"March  31  st,  1892. 

"  With  reference  to  your  inquiry  concerning  the  voice  which 
was  heard  at  the  time  of  the  late  Mrs.  Victor's  death,  I  am 
able  to  state  that  my  son,  my  nephew,  and  myself  were  sitting 
together,  and  we  all  heard  it  distinctly.  This  occurred  about 
fourteen  years  ago.  The  account  given  by  my  son  exactly 
coincides  with  my  own  recollection.  u  R.  H.  GARY." 

We  have  ascertained  from  the  Registrar-General 
that  Mary  Victor,  widow  of  Thomas  Victor,  farmer, 
died  at  Linwood,  Paul,  Penzance,  on  March  8th, 
1875,  from  bronchitis. 

Mr.  C.  H.  Gary  adds  that  though  Mrs.  Victor  was 
known  to  be  ill,  her  death  was  not  thought  to  be 
imminent.  He  has  himself  had  other  auditory  hallu- 
cinations— viz.,  the  hearing  of  footsteps  on  two  or 
three  occasions  at  about  the  time  of  the  death  of  a 
relation. 

In  the  next  case  the  voice  heard  did  not  corre- 
spond with  any  external  event  It  was,  as  it  were, 
"the  after-image'*  of  a  voice  once  familiar  in  the 
house. 

No.  79. — From  Miss  ANNIE  NEWBOLD. 

"May  7//z,  1892. 

"  Florence  N.,  a  little  child  of  under  four  years  old,  to  whom 
I  was  very  much  attached,  died  on  May  23rd,  1889.  She  lived 
in  the  house  where  I  have  my  studio,  and  during  the  daytime 
was  invariably  with  me.  There  were  no  other  children  in  the 
house,  and  she  was  a  general  pet.  I  was  ill  for  some  time  after 
her  death,  and  one  morning  in  July  1889  I  went  to  see  Mrs.  N. 
We  were  sitting  talking  in  her  room  on  the  ground-floor  when 
I  suddenly  heard  the  child's  voice  distinctly  call c  Miss  Boo*  (her 
name  for  me).  I  was  about  to  answer,  when  I  remembered  that  it 
could  be  no  living  voice  and  so  continued  my  sentence,  thinking 
that  I  would  say  nothing  about  the  occurrence  to  her  mother.  At 
that  moment  Mrs.  N.  turned  to  me  and  said,  '  Miss  Newbold, 
did  you  hear  that  ? '  *  Yes/  I  replied, c  what  was  it  ? '  And  she 
said,  '  My  little  child,  and  she  called  «  Miss  Boo."  '  We  both 
noticed  that  the  sound  came  from  below,  as  if  she  were  standing 


2/6  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

in  the  kitchen  doorway  underneath  the  room  in  which  we  were 
sitting.  There  was  no  possibility  of  its  being  another  child,  as 
there  was  not  one  in  the  house.  The  upper  floors  were  empty, 
too,  at  the  time.  I  can  vouch  for  the  accuracy  of  this  account. 

"ANNIE  NEWBOLD." 

Mrs.  N.  writes: — 

"Miss  Newbold  came  to  see  me  one  morning  in  July  1889, 
about  two  months  after  my  only  child's  death.  We  were  in  my 
room  talking  when  I  distinctly  heard  my  little  girl's  voice  call 
*  Miss  Boo.'  I  asked  Miss  Newbold  if  she  had  heard  anything 
and  she  said  '  Yes.  What  was  it  ? '  I  replied,  '  My  little  child, 
and  she  said  "  Miss  Boo." '  "  LIZZIE  N." 

In  answer  to  questions,  Miss  Newbold  writes: — 

,  "  i.  Mrs.  N.  never  heard  her  little  girl's  voice  on  any  other 
occasion. 

"  2.  We  were  not  talking  about  the  little  girl  at  the  time,  nor 
upon  any  subject  connected  with  her.  I,  however,  had  a  box  of 
roses  on  my  knee,  which  I  was  mechanically  sorting,  and  putting 
all  the  white  ones  on  one  side  to  send  to  the  little  child's  grave. 

"3.  Mrs.-N.  has  never  heard  any  other  voices,  either  before 
or  since.  Neither  have  I ;  but  I  have  three  or  four  times  in  my 
life  been  conscious  of  a  presence  without  being  able  to  explain 
definitely  what  it  was  I  felt.  I  have  never  seen  anything. 


1  With  this  may  be  compared  an  incident  recorded  by  William  Bell 
Scott  {Autobiographical  Notes y  vol.  ii.  pp.  117,  118).  The  account  is 
perhaps  worth  quoting,  though  the  length  of  time  which  has  elapsed, 
and  the  fact  that  it  rests  upon  a  single  memory,  leave  to  the  narrative 
little  value  other  than  that  derived  from  its  literary  associations.  It 
should  be  added,  however,  that  Mr.  Scott's  claim  to  a  rational  seep- 
ticism  in  these  matters  appears  to  be  borne  out  by  other  passages  in  the 
book. 

"  I  have  so  repeatedly  expressed  my  unbelief  in  all  the  vulgar  or 
popular  forms  of  supernatural  ism  (says  Mr.  Scott),  that  I  feel  a  little 
hesitation  in  recording  a  circumstance  resembling  that  class  of  things 
which  began  the  very  evening  after  his  [i.e.,  Rossetti's]  departure.  I 
could  now  get  a  little  peace  to  revise  my  D'urer  Journal%  and  my 
German  friend  Mr.  Reid,  who  had  given  me  an  hour,  stayed  to  dinner. 
Rossetti's  habit,  when  composing  or  even  correcting  for  the  press,  was  to 
retire  after  dinner  to  the  room  above,  the  drawing-room  of  the  old 
house,  to  read  aloud  to  himself,  when  by  himself.  This  he  did  in  a 
voice  so  loud  that  we  in  the  dining-room  beneath  could  almost  hear  his 
words.  Well,  as  we  were  sitting  after  dinner,  when  he  must  have  been 
approaching  London  in  the  train,  what  could  it  be  we  heard  ?  The 
usual  voice  reading  to  itself  in  the  usual ,  place  over  our  heads !  I 
looked  at  A.  B.;  she  was  listening  intently  till  she  could  bear  it  no 


COLLECTIVE  HALLUCINATIONS.       2/7 

Collective  Visual  Hallucinations. 

Passing  to  visual  phantasms,  we  will  begin  by 
citing  a  case  in  which  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  the  hallucination  was  purely  subjective ;  a 
better  case  for  {Illustrating  the  hypothesis  of  the 
infectious  character  of  casual  hallucination  could 
hardly  be  found.  It  is  to  be  noted  indeed  that 
the  second  percipient  saw  the  apparition  on  the  first 
occasion  only  after  a  distinct  verbal  suggestion,  but, 
as  already  stated,  there  is  no  evidence  that  a  single 
verbal  suggestion  can  produce  a  hallucination  in  a 
healthy  person  in  full  possession  of  his  normal 
faculties. 

No.  80. — From  MRS.  GREIFFENBERG  and  MRS. 
ERNI-GREIFFENBERG. 

Mr.  F.  C.  S.  Schiller,  through  whom  the  account 
was  obtained,  tells  us  that  he  heard  the  story  in 
October  1890  from  the  two  percipients.  The  follow- 
ing account  was  put  together  by  him  from  an  account 
(which  he  also  sent  us)  written  by  Mrs.  Erni-Greiflen- 
berg,  and  various  conversations  which  he  had  with 
both  ladies  on  the  subject.  He  afterwards  obtained 
their  signatures  to  it.  Neither  of  them  has  had  any 
other  hallucinatory  experience. 

longer,  and  left  the  room.  Our  learned  priest  found  me,  I  fancy,  to  be 
rather  distrait^  so  he  rose,  saying  it  was  about  his  time,  and  besides,  he 
continued,  '  I  hear  Miss  Boyd  has  some  friend  in  the  drawing-room,  so 
I  won't  go  up.  Give  her  my  good-bye  and  respects/  I  joined  her  at 
once,  but  of  course  we  heard  nothing  in  the  room  itself.  Such  is  the 
circumstance  as  it  took  place.  Mr.  Reid,  who  knew  nothing  of  the 
habit  of  D.  G.  R.,  hearing  the  voice  as  well  as  we  did,  although  it 
sounded  to  him  like  talking  rather  than  reading,  was  a  sure  evidence 
we  were  not  deceiving  ourselves.  Next  night  it  was  the  same,  and 
so  it  went  on  till  I  left.  When  we  tried  to  approach  it  was  not  audible, 
or  when  the  doors  of  the  drawing-room  and  its  small  ante-room  com- 
municating with  the  staircase  were  left  open,  we  could  make  nothing 
of  it.  It  gradually  tapered  off  when  Miss  Boyd  was  left  by  herself;  by- 
and-by  the  whole  establishment  was  bolted  and  barred  for  the  winter. 
Next  season  it  had  entirely  ceased/9 


278  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 


"December  itfh,  1890. 

u  In  the  beginning  of  the  summer  of  1884  we  were  sitting  at 
dinner  at  home  as  usual,  in  the  middle  of  the  day.  In  the  midst 
of  the  conversation  I  noticed  my  mother  suddenly  looking  down 
at  something  beneath  the  table.  I  inquired  whether  she  had 
dropped  anything,  and  received  the  answer,  *  No,  but  I  wonder 
how  that  cat  can  have  got  into  the  room  ?  '  Looking  underneath 
the  table,  I  was  surprised  to  see  a  large  white  Angora  cat  beside 
my  mother's  chair.  We  both  got  up,  and  I  opened  the  door  to 
let  the  cat  out.  She  marched  round  the  table,  went  noiselessly 
out  of  the  door,  and  when  about  half-way  down  the  passage 
turned  round  and  faced  us.  For  a  short  time  she  regularly 
stared  at  us  with  her  green  eyes,  then  she  dissolved  away,  like  a 
mist,  under  our  eyes. 

"  Even  apart  from  the  mode  of  her  disappearance,  we  felt  con- 
vinced that  the  cat  could  not  have  been  a  real  one,  as  we  neither 
had  one  of  our  own,  nor  knew  of  any  that  would  answer  to  the 
description  in  the  place,  and  so  this  appearance  made  an  un- 
pleasant impression  upon  us. 

"This  impression  was,  however,  greatly  enhanced  by  what 
happened  in  the  following  year,  1885,  when  we  were  staying  in 
Leipzig  with  my  married  sister  (the  daughter  of  Mrs.  Greiften- 
berg).  We  had  come  home  one  afternoon  from  a  walk,  when, 
on  opening  the  door  of  the  flat,  we  were  met  in  the  hall  by  the 
same  white  cat.  It  proceeded  down  the  passage  in  front  of  us, 
and  looked  at  us  with  the  same  melancholy  gaze.  When  it  got 
to  the  door  of  the  cellar  (which  was  locked),  it  again  dissolved 
into  nothing. 

"  On  this  occasion  also  it  was  first  seen  by  my  mother,  and  we 
were  both  impressed  by  the  uncanny  and  gruesome  character  of 
the  appearance.  In  this  case,  also,  the  cat  could  not  have  been 
a  real  one,  as  there  was  no  such  cat  in  the  neighbourhood." 

A  very  striking  example  of  a  collective  hallucination, 
apparently  of  the  same  type,  was  given  to  us  by  Mrs. 
Ward.  She  and  her  husband,  the  late  E.  M.  Ward, 
R.A.,  in  1851  saw  in  their  bedroom  two  small  pear- 
shaped  lights  which,  when  touched,  broke  into  small 
luminous  fragments.  (Phantasms  of  the  Living,  vol. 
ii.  p.  193.)  We  have  also  a  case  in  which  our  inform- 
ant, when  a  girl  of  fifteen,  with  another  girl,  saw  in 
the  middle  of  the  room,  at  a  dancing  class,  a  hallu- 
cinatory chair.  Yet  another  case  is  recorded  by 
Miss  Foy,  a  careful  observer,  wfro  had  been  troubled 
for  some  time  with  a  hallucinatory  skeleton,  the 


COLLECTIVE  HALLUCINATIONS  279 

subjective  character  of  which  she  fully  recognised. 
On  one  occasion  when  in  hospital  the  hallucination 
recurred,  and  appears  to  have  been  seen  also  by  the 
patient  in  the  adjoining  bed,  to  whom  no  hint  of  any 
kind  had  been  given.  In  both  these  cases,  how- 
ever, the  evidence  depends  upon  a  single  memory. 
We  have  another  case  in  which  a  singular  luminous 
body — apparently  a  hallucination  of  a  rudimentary 
kind — was  perceived  by  two  witnesses  coincidently 
with  the  death  of  a  near  relative  of  one  of  them. 
The  Rev.  A.  T.  S.  Goodrick,  from  whom  I  originally 
received  the  account  viva  voce,  was  walking  with  a 
friend  across  a  moor  in  Sutherlandshire 

"when  there  suddenly  arose,  to  all  appearance  out  of  the 
road  between  our  feet  as  we  walked,  a  ball  of  fire,  about  the  size 
of  an  i8lb.  cannon  ball.  It  was  of  an  orange-red  colour,  and 
there  seemed  to  be  a  kind  of  rotatory  motion  in  it,  not  un- 
like a  firework  of  some  description.  ...  It  seemed  to  move 
forward  with  us,  at  a  distance  of  not  more  than  6  inches  in  front, 
and  at  the  same  time  rose  pretty  swiftly  breast  high  ,  .  .  and 
then  disappeared  and  left  no  trace." 

Mr.  Goodrick  adds  that  a  light  rain  was  falling; 
but  there  was  no  thunderstorm. 

From  uneducated  witnesses  such  an  account  no 
doubt  would  have  but  little  value.  A  will-o'-the-wisp 
in  an  adjoining  marsh,  or  even  a  flash  of  lightning, 
might  in  such  a  case  form  a  sufficient  basis  for  the 
story.  And  even  assuming  that  the  account  here 
given  accurately  describes  what  was  seen,  it  is 
difficult  to  feel  certain  that  the  appearance  was 
hallucinatory.  But  if  it  were  of  a  physical  nature,  it 
is  certainly  not  easy  to  conjecture  what  it  could  have 
been,  and  the  coincidence  with  the  death  is  an  ad- 
ditional argument  for  regarding  the  phenomenon  as 
hallucinatory. 

In  the  next  case  the  phantasm  seems  to  belong  to 
a  not  unusual  type  of  subjective  hallucinations,  the 
"after-image"  of  a  familiar  figure.  There  are  no 
grounds  for  ascribing  the  apparition  to  any  "  agency  M 


280  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

on  the  part  of  the  person  whose  image  was  seen.  If 
the  incident  is  correctly  described,  the  prima  facie 
explanation  is  that  a  casual  hallucination  was  com- 
municated by  telepathic  suggestion  to  a  second 
person  in  the  company  of  the  original  percipient  At 
our  request  the  two  accounts  which  follow  were  written 
independently. 

No.  8 1. — From  MRS.  MILMAN. 

"17  SOUTHWELL  GARDENS,  S.W., 
March  2oth,  1888. 

"  About  three  years  ago  I  was  coming  out  of  the  dining-room 
one  day,  after  lunch,  with  my  sister.  My  mother  had,  as  I 
supposed,  preceded  us  upstairs,  as  usual.  The  library  door, 
which  faces  the  dining-room,  stood  wide  open,  and  looking 
through  it  as  I  crossed  the  hall,  I  saw  my  mother  in  the  library, 
seated  at  the  writing-table,  and  apparently  writing.  Instead, 
therefore,  of  going  upstairs,  as  I  had  intended,  I  went  to  the 
library  door,  wishing  to  speak  to  her,  but  when  I  looked  in  the 
room  was  empty. 

u  At  the  same  moment,  my  sister,  who  had  also  been  going 
towards  the  stairs  in  the  first  instance,  changed  her  direction, 


that  we  had  both  seen  her  seated  at  the  writing-table,  and 
bending  over  it  as  if  writing.  My  mother  was  never  in  the 
habit  of  writing  in  the  library. 

^ "  I  recollect  her  dress  perfectly,  as  the  impression  was  quite 
distinct  and  vivid.  She  had  on  a  black  cloak,  and  bonnet  with 
a  yellow  bird  in  it,  which  she  generally  wore. 

"  It  is  the  only  time  anything  of  the  kind  has  happened  to 
me.  "  M.  J.  MILMAN." 

From  Miss  CAMPBELL. 

"  17  SOUTHWELL  GARDENS,  S.W., 

March  list,  1888. 

"  My  sister  and  mother  and  myself,  after  returning  from  our 
morning  drive,  came  into  the  dining-room  without  removing 
our  things,  and  had  luncheon  as  usual,  during  which  my  sister 
and  I  laughed  and  cracked  jokes  in  the  gayest  of  spirits.  After 
a  time  my  mother  rose  and  left  the  room,  but  we  remained  on 
for  a  few  minutes.  Finally  we  both  go/  up  and  went  into  the 
passage,  and  I  was  about  to  go  upstairs  and  take  off  my  things 


COLLECTIVE  HALLUCINATIONS.  28l 

when  I  saw  my  sister  turn  into  my  father's  study  (which  was 
directly  opposite  the  dining-room),  with  the  evident  intention, 
as  I  supposed,  of  speaking  to  my  mother,  whom  I  distinctly 
noticed  seated  at  my  father's  desk  in  her  cloak  and  bonnet, 
busily  absorbed  in  writing.  The  door  of  the  study  was  wide 
open  at  the  time.  I  turned  round  and  followed  her  to  the  door, 
when,  to  my  surprise,  my  mother  had  completely  disappeared, 
and  I  noticed  my  sister  turned  away  too,  and  left  the  room  as  if 
puzzled.  I  asked  her,  with  some  curiosity,  what  she  went  into 
the  room  for  ?  She  replied  that  she  fancied  she  saw  my  mother 
bending  over  the  desk  writing,  and  went  in  to  speak  to  her. 
Feeling  very  much  startled  and  alarmed,  we  went  upstairs  to 
see  after  her,  and  found  her  in  her  bedroom,  where  she  went 
immediately  on  leaving  the  dining-room,  and  had  been  all  the 
time.  "E.  J.  CAMPBELL." 

In  the  next  case  the  apparition  was  recognised  by 
one  of  the  percipients  only,  as  resembling  a  relative 
who  had  been  dead  some  years.  Neither  percipient 
appears  to  have  seen  the  face. 

No.  82.— From  MRS.  J.  C. 

"August  20th,  1893. 

"  Seven  years  ago  my  husband  and  I  had  the  following 
curious  experience  : — 

"  In  the  middle  of  the  night  I  awoke  with  the  feeling  that 
some  one  was  near  me,  and  at  once  saw  a  figure  moving  from  the 
side  of  my  bed  towards  the  wardrobe  where  I  kept  jewellery. 
My  supposition  was  that  it  was  a  burglar,  and  I  refrained  from 
waking  my  husband  (whose  bed  was  two  feet  from  mine),  as  I 
thought  the  burglar  would  be  armed,  and  I  knew  my  husband 
would  certainly  attack  him  and  be  at  his  mercy.  I  therefore  lay 
perfectly  still. 

"  The  apparition  having  passed  the  foot  of  my  bed,  then 
came  opposite  my  husband's,  when,  to  my  astonishment,  I  saw 
my  husband  sit  up  in  bed  gazing  at  the  figure.  In  a  moment  or 
two  he  lay  down  again,  and  the  figure  apparently  passed  to  the 
door. 

"  We  neither  of  us  spoke  one  word  that  night. 

"In  the  morning  I  asked  my  husband  to  look  if  the  doors  were 
locked  (of  which  there  are  three  in  the  room).  They  were  all 
secure.  I  also  examined  the  beds  to  see  if  they  by  any  possi- 
bility could  have  touched,  and  so  I  unconsciously  have 
awakened  him,  but  thay  were  quite  separate.  I  then  asked 
if  he  remembered  anything  happening  in  the  night,  and  he 


282  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

replied,  'Yes,  a  strange  thing:  I  thought  I  saw  my  father  go 
out  of  that  door.1  Not  till  then  did  I  tell  him  that  I  thought 
the  figure  was  a  burglar,  and  how  frightened  I  had  been  at  the 
thought  of  his  struggling  with  an  armed  man,  and  had  therefore 
remained  silent. 

"The  gas  was  burning,  and  I  could  see  quite  across  the 
room." 

I  received  a  full  account  of  the  incident  orally 
from  Mrs.  C.  on  the  2Oth  August  1893.  She  told 
me  that  she  never  saw  the  face  of  the  figure,  and 
could  not  see,  or  cannot  now  recollect,  the  dress. 
She  had  no  doubt  at  the  time  that  it  was  a  burglar. 
Mrs.  C.  has  had  no  other  hallucination  of  any  kind. 

Mr.  C.  writes  on  the  2ist  August  1893: — 

"  I  have  read  my  wife's  account,  and  endorse  it. 

"  To  my  recollection  I  was  not  dreaming  previously  to  sitting 
up  in  bed,  when  I  believed  I  saw  my  father  going  towards  the 
door.  My  mind  had  not  been  specially  active  about  his  affairs 
at  that  time,  although  I  was  rather  anxious  about  some  matters 
of  business. 

"  The  figure  I  supposed  to  be  my  father  (and  I  had  no 
thought  it  was  any  one  else)  moved  noiselessly  across  the  room 
and  disappeared  through  the  doorway.  I  should  have  treated 
it  as  a  dream  only,  if  my  wife  had  not  recalled  my  attention 
to  it  in  the  morning  by  asking  me  if  I  remembered  sitting  up 
in  bed. 

"  Although  I  am  certain  my  eyes  were  open  at  the  time  of 
the  apparition,  I  did  not  see  the  face,  but  recognised  the  figure 
as  that  of  my  father  by  the  general  appearance  as  I  remembered 
him. 

"  I  have  had  no  other  similar  waking  experience,  but  have 
previously  seen  my  father  distinctly  in  a  dream  after  his  decease." 

Mr.  C.  told  me  that  he  was  positive  the  figure 
could  not  have  been  that  of  a  real  man  :  the  doors 
were  found  locked  on  the  inside  in  the  morning. 
Moreover,  his  recognition  of  the  figure,  though  he 
could  not  see  the  face,  was  unmistakable. 

We  have  many  similar  accounts  of  collective 
phantasms  which  appear  to  have  differed  from 
subjective  hallucinations  of  thfe  ordinary  type  in 


COLLECTIVE  HALLUCINATIONS*  283 

no  other  particular  than  the  fact  of  their  occur- 
rence to  two  persons  simultaneously.  Thus,  to 
quote  a  few  instances,  Mrs.  Willett,  of  Bedales, 
Lindfield,  Sussex,  sent  us  an  extract  from  her 
diary  describing  a  figure  seen  by  her  daughter  and 
a  visitor, — a  fair-haired  child  running  along  a  gallery. 
The  account  is  confirmed  by  the  visitor,  Miss  S. 
From  Mrs.  and  Miss  Goodhall  we  have  an  account 
of  a  tall  figure  seen  by  them  when  driving  in  a 

country  lane.     Miss  C and  two  of  her   sisters 

saw  in  a  bedroom  in  a  London  house  the  figure  of 
a  young  man  of  middle  height  wearing  a  peaked 
cap  and  dark  clothes.  Mrs.  Y.  and  her  niece  saw 
the  figure  of  a  child  in  a  long  grey  dressing-gown 
running  down  a  lighted  staircase.  In  this  last  case 
the  figure  was  mistaken  for  Mrs.  Y.'s  daughter,  but 
in  the  other  cases  the  phantasm  bore  no  resemblance 
to  any  one  with  whom  the  percipients  were  acquainted. 
In  no  instance  does  it  seem  possible  except  by  vio- 
lently straining  the  probabilities  to  suppose  the  figure 
seen  to  have  been  that  of  a  human  being. 

In  the  next  case  the  phantasm,  which  was  recog- 
nised, occurred  within  a  short  time  of  the  death  of 
the  person  represented.  The  narrator  is  a  decorator 
and  house-painter,  of  Uniontown,  Kentucky,  U.S.A. 

No.  83. — From  MR.  S.  S.  FALKINBURG. 

<fc  September  12th,  1884. 

4<  The  following  circumstance  is  impressed  upon  my  mind  in 
a  manner  which  will  preclude  its  ever  being  forgotten  by  me  or 
the  members  of  my  family  interested.  My  little  son  Arthur, 
who  was  then  five  years  old,  and  the  pet  of  his  grandpapa,  was 
playing  on  the  floor,  when  I  entered  the  house  a  quarter  to 
seven  o'clock,  Friday  evening,  July  nth,  1879.  *  was  V^r7 
tired,  having  been  receiving  and  paying  for  staves  all  day,  and 
it  being  an  exceedingly  sultry  evening,  I  lay  down  by  Artie  on 
the  carpet,  and  entered  into  conversation  with  my  wife— not, 
however,  in  regard  to  my  parents.  Artie,  as  usually  was  the 
case,  came  and  lay  down  with  his  little  head  upon  my  left  arm, 
when  all  at  once  he  exclaimed,  'Papa!  papal  Grandpa  1'  I 
cast  my  eyes  towar4s  the  ceiling,  or  opened  my  eyes,  \  am  not 


284  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

sure  which,  when,  between  me  and  the  joists  (it  was  an  old- 
fashioned  lo^-cabin),  I  saw  the  face  of  my  father  as  plainly  as 
ever  I  saw  him  in  my  life.  He  appeared  to  me  to  be  very  pale, 
and  looked  sad,  as  I  had  seen  him  upon  my  last  visit  to  him 
three  months  previous.  I  immediately  spoke  to  my  wife,  who 
was  sitting  within  a  few  feet  of  me,  and  said,  *  Clara,  there 
is  something  wrong  at  home ;  father  is  either  dead  or  very 
sick.'  She  tried  to  persuade  me  that  it  was  my  imagination, 
but  I  could  not  help  feeling  that  something  was  wrong.  Being 
very  tired,  we  soon  after  retired,  and  about  ten  o'clock  Artie 
woke  me  up  repeating,  '  Papa,  grandpa  is  here.'  I  looked,  and 
believe,  if  I  remember  right,  got  up,  at  any  rate  to  get  the  child 
warm,  as  he  complained  of  coldness,  and  it  was  very  sultry 
weather.  Next  morning  I  expressed  my  determination  to  go 
at  once  to  Indianapolis.  My  wife  made  light  of  it  and  over- 
persuaded  me,  and  I  did  not  go  until  Monday  morning,  and 
upon  arriving  at  home  (my  father's),  I  found  that  he  had  been 
buried  the  day  before,  Sunday,  July  I3th. 

"  Now  comes  the  mysterious  part  to  me.  After  I  had  told  my 
mother  and  brother  of  my  vision,  or  whatever  it  may  have  been, 
they  told  me  the  following  : — 

"  On  the  morning  of  the  nth  July,  the  day  of  his  death,  he 
arose  early  and  expressed  himself  as  feeling  unusually  well,  and 
ate  a  hearty  breakfast.  He  took  the  Bible  (he  was  a  Methodist 
minister),  and  went  and  remained  until  near  noon.  He  ate  a 
hearty  dinner,  and  went  to  the  front  gate,  and,  looking  up  and 
down  the  street,  remarked  that  he  could  not,  or  at  least  would 
not  be  disappointed,  some  one  was  surely  coming.  During  the 
afternoon  and  evening  he  seemed  restless,  and  went  to  the  gate, 
looking  down  street,  frequently.  At  last,  about  time  for  supper, 
he  mentioned  my  name,  and  expressed  his  conviction  that  God, 
in  His  own  good  time,  would  answer  his  prayers  in  my  behalf, 
I  being  at  that  time  very  wild.  Mother  going  into  the  kitchen 
to  prepare  supper,  he  followed  her  and  continued  talking  to 
her  about  myself  and  family,  and  especially  Arthur,  my  son. 
Supper  being  over,  he  moved  his  chair  near  the  door,  and  was 
conversing  about  me  at  the  time  he  died.  The  last  words 
were  about  me,  and  were  spoken,  by  mother's  clock,  14 
minutes  of  7.  He  did  not  fall,  but  just  quit  talking  and  was  dead. 

"  In  answer  to  my  inquiries,  my  son  Arthur  says  he  remem- 
bers the  circumstances,  and  the  impression  he  received  upon 
that  occasion  is  ineffaceable. 

"SAMUEL  S.  FALKINBURG;" 

We  have  procured  a  certificate  of  death  from  the 
Indianapolis  Board  of  Health,  yhich  confirms  the 
date  given* 


COLLECTIVE  HALLUCINATIONS.  28$ 

Mrs.  Falkinburg  writes  to  us,  on   September  12, 

1884:— 

"In  answer  to  your  request,  I  will  say  that  I  cheerfully  give 
my  recollection  of  the  circumstance  to  which  you  refer. 

"  We  were  living  in  Brown  County,  Indiana,  fifty  miles  south 
of  Indianapolis,  in  the  summer  of  1879.  My  husband  (Mr.  S. 
S.  Falkinburg)  was  in  the  employ  of  one  John  Ayers,  buying 
staves. 

"  On  the  evening  of  July  iith,  about  6.30  o'clock,  he  came 
into  the  room  where  I  was  sitting,  and  lay  down  on  the  carpet 
with  my  little  boy  Arthur,  complaining  of  being  very  tired  and 
warm.  Entering  into  conversation  on  some  unimportant  matter, 
Arthur  went  to  him  and  lay  down  by  his  side.  In  a  few  moments 
my  notice  was  attracted  by  hearing  Arthur  exclaim  :  '  Oh,  papa, 
grandpa,  grandpa,  papa,'  at  the  same  time  pointing  with  his 
little  hand  toward  the  ceiling.  I  looked  in  the  direction  he  was 
pointing,  but  saw  nothing.  My  husband,  however,  said :  *  Clara, 
there  is  something  wrong-  at  home ;  father  is  either  dead  or  very 
sick.'  I  tried  to  laugh  him  out  of  what  I  thought  an  idle  fancy ; 
but  he  insisted  that  he  saw  the  face  of  his  father  looking  at  him 
from  near  the  ceiling,  and  Arthur  said,  '  Grandpa  was  come,  for 
he  saw  him.'  That  night  we  were  awakened  by  Artie  again  call- 
ing his  papa  to  see  *  grandpa.' 

"  A  short  time  after  my  husband  started  (Monday)  to  go  to 
Indianapolis,  I  received  a  letter  calling  him  to  the  burial  of  his 
father*,  and  some  time  after,  in  conversation  with  his  mother,  it 
transpired  that  the  time  he  and  Artie  saw  the  vision  was  within 
two  or  three  minutes  of  the  time  his  father  died. 

"  CLARA  T.  FALKINBURG." 

Asked  whether  this  was  his  sole  experience  of  a 
visual  hallucination,  Mr.  Falkinburg  replied  that  it 
was.  Occasionally,  however,  since  that  time,  he  has 
had  auditory  impressions  suggestive  of  his  father's 
presence. 

Here  again,  in  the  absence  of  evidence  to  the 
contrary,  it  seems  more  probable  that  Mr.  Falkin- 
burg's  hallucination  was  telepathically  originated,  than 
that  the  casual  remark  of  a  child  of  five  could  produce 
an  effect  hitherto  observed  only  as  the  result  of  hyp- 
notic influence  or  some  other  equally  potent  disturb- 
ing cause. 

In  the  following  c*ase,  which  again  comes  to  us  from 


286  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

the  United  States,  the  vision  was  of  a  more  complicated 
kind,  and  part  only  of  the  original  percipient's  experi- 
ence was  shared.  The  occurrence  of  the  apparition 
within  a  few  hours  of  the  death  of  a  person  to  whom 
it  bore  some  resemblance  seems  to  be  established  ; 
but  in  estimating  the  value  of  the  coincidence,  it 
should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  phantasm  was 
not  at  the  time  referred  to  the  deceased,  and  that 
there  are  numerous  chances  of  the  coincidence  of  an 
unrecognised  hallucination  with  a  death  amongst  a 
doctor's  circle  of  acquaintance. 

No.  84.— From  DR.  W.  O.  S., 

who  wrote  to  Dr.  Hodgson  from  Albany,  New  York, 
on  the  loth  September  1888,  enclosing  the  following 
account : — 

"  I  am  a  physician,  have  been  in  practice  about  eleven  years ; 
am  in  excellent  health,  do  not  use  intoxicants,  tobacco,  drugs, 
or  strong  tea  or  coffee.  Am  not  subject  (in  the  least)  to  dreams, 
and  have  never  been  a  believer  in  apparitions,  etc. 

"  On  Monday  last,  September  3rd,  1888,  I  went  to  bed1  about 
it  P.M.,  after  my  day's  work.  Had  supper,  a  light  one,  about 
7  P.M.  ;  made  calls  after  supper. 

"My  bedroom  is  on  the  second  floor  of  a  city  block  house, 
and  I  kept  all  my  doors  locked  except  the  one  leading  to  my 
wife's  room,  next  to  mine,  opening  into  mine  by  a  wide  sliding 
door,  always  left  wide  open  at  night.  The  diagram  opposite 
will  illustrate  the  relation  of  the  rooms. 

"  I  occupy  room  i  and  my  wife  room  2.  Her  room  has 
but  one  window,  and  a  door  opening  only  into  my  room.  My 
room  has  three  doors  (all  bolted  at  night)  and  one  window. 
Both  windows  in  our  rooms  have  heavy  green  shades,  which  are 
drawn  nearly  to  the  bottom  of  the  window  at  night,  shutting  out 
early  daylight.  No  artificial  lights  command  the  windows,  and 
the  moonlight  very  seldom. 

"I  undressed  and  went  to  bed  about  n,  and  soon  was 
asleep.  In  the  neighbourhood  of  4  A.M.  I  was  awakened  by  a 
strong  light  in  my  face.  I  awoke  and  thought  I  saw  my  wife 
standing  at  Fig.  3,  as  she  was  to  rise  at  5.30  to  take  an  early 
train.  The  light  was  so  bright  and  pervading  that  I  spoke,  but 
got  no  answer.  As  I  spoke,  the  figure^  retreated  to  Fig.  4,  and 
as  gradually  faded  to  a  spot  at  Fig.  5,  The  noiseless  shifting  of 


COLLECTIVE  HALLUCINATIONS. 


287 


the  light  made  me  think  it  was  a  servant  in  the  hall  and  the  light 
was  thrown  through  the  keyhole  as  she  moved.  That  could  not 
be,  as  some  clothing  covered  the  keyhole.  I  then  thought  a 
burglar  must  be  in  the  room,  as  the  light  settled  near  a  large 
safe  in  my  room.  Thereupon  I  called  loudly  to  my  wife,  and 
sprang  to  light  a  light.  As  I  called  her  name  she  suddenly 
awoke,  and  called  out,  '  What  is  that  bright  light  in  your 
room  ? '  I  lit  the  gas  and  searched  (there  had  been  no  light  in 
either  room).  Everything  was  undisturbed. 

"  My  wife  left  on  the  early  train.  I  attended  to  my  work  as 
usual.  At  noon,  when  I  reached  home,  the  servant  who 
answers  the  door  informed  me  that  a  man  had  been  to  my 
office  to  see  about  a  certificate  for  a  young  lady  who  had  died 
suddenly  early  that  morning  from  a  hemorrhage  from  the  lungs. 
She  died  about  one  o'clock — the  figure  I  saw  about  four  o'clock. 


1         1 

1 

HALL 

-  '  —  L-  T— 

5" 

:        I 

BCD        [       4* 

3         . 

j     poo*1 

i     1                  T 

I 

X**0 

' 

sco       RooM     j- 

There  was  but  little  resemblance  between  the  two,  as  far  as  I 
noticed,  except  height  and  figure.  The  faces  were  not  unlike, 
except  that  the  apparition  seemed  considerably  older.  I  had 
seen  the  young  lady  the  evening  before,  but,  although  much 
interested  in  the  case,  did  not  consider  it  immediately  serious. 
She  had  been  in  excellent  health  up  to  within  two  days  of  her 
death.  At  first  she  spit  a  little  blood,  from  a  strain.  When 
she  was  taken  with  the  severe  hemorrhage,  and  choked  to 
death,  she  called  for  help  and  for  me. 

"  This  is  the  first  experience  of  the  kind  I  have  ever  had,  or 
personally  have  known  about-  It  was  very  clear— the  figure  or 
apparition — at  first,  but  rapidly  faded.  My  wife  remarked  the 
light  before  I  had  spoken  anything  except  her  name.  When  I 
awake  I  am  wide  awake  in  an  instant,  as  I  am  accustomed  to 
answer  a  telephone  in  the  hall  and  my  office-bell  at  night." 


288  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

From  MRS.  W.  O.  S. 

"ALBANY,  September  27*%,  1888. 

"  On  the  morning  of  September  4  I  was  suddenly  awakened 
out  of  a  sound  sleep  by  my  husband's  calling  to  me  from  an 
adjoining  room.  Before  I  answered  him  I  was  struck  with  the 
fact  that  although  the  green  shade  to  his  window  was  drawn 
down,  his  room  seemed  flooded  by  a  soft  yellow  light,  while  my 
chamber,  with  the  window  on  same  side  as  his,  and  with  the 
shade  drawn  up,  was  dark.  The  first  thing  I  said  was,  '  What 
is  that  light  ?'  He  replied  he  didn't  know.  I  then  got  up  and 
went  into  his  room,  which  was  still  quite  light.  The  light  faded 
away  in  a  moment  or  two.  The  shade  was  down  all  the  time. 
When  I  went  back  to  my  room  I  saw  that  it  was  a  few  moments 
after  four." 

In  answer  to  further  questions,  Mrs.  W.  O.  S. 
adds : — 

"October  i6///,  1888. 

"  In  regard  to  the  light  in  my  husband's  room,  it  seemed  to 
me  to  be  perhaps  more  in  the  corner  between  his  window  and  my 
door,  although  it  was  faintly  distributed  through  the  room. 
When  I  first  saw  the  light  (lying  in  bed)  it  was  brilliant,  but  I 
only  commanded  a  view  of  the  corner  of  his  room,  between  his 
window  and  my  door.  When  I  reached  the  door  the  light  had 
begun  to  fade,  though  it  seemed  brighter  in  the  doorway  where 
I  stood  than  elsewhere.  '  My  husband  seemed  greatly  perplexed, 
and  said,  *  How  strange  1  I  thought  surely  there  was  a  woman 
in  my  room/  I  said,  '  Did  you  think  it  was  I  ? '  He  said,  '  At 
first,  of  course,  I  thought  so,  but  when  I  rubbed  my  eyes  I 

saw  it  was  not.     It  looked  some  like  Mrs.  B '   (another 

patient  of  his, — not  the  girl  who  died  that  night).  He,  more- 
over, said  that  the  figure  never  seemed  to  look  directly  at  him, 
but  towards  the  wall  beyond  his  bed;  and  that  the  figure 
seemed  clothed  in  white,  or  something  very  light.  That  was 
all  he  said,  except  that  later,  when  he  knew  the  girl  was 
dead,  and  I  asked  him  if  the  figure  at  all  resembled  her,  he 
said,  '  Yes,  it  did  look  like  her,  only  older."  * 


1  Proc.  American  S.P.R.,  pp.  405-408.  The  reader  may  be 
interested  in  comparing  the  ragged  and  possibly  commonplace 
account  given  in  the  text  with  the  following  spirited  version  of 
the  same  incident  quoted  from  the  Arena,  March  1892.  The  writer 
of  the  account  states  that  "  the  story,  as  I  tell  it,  was  given  me  by 
the  wife."  But  he  does  not,  it  will  be  observed,  quote  it  as  in  Mrs. 
W.  O.  S.'s  words.  After  describing  how  the  doctor  was  awakened  by 
a  strong  light  in  the  room  and  saw  the  figure  of  a  woman,  whom 


COLLECTIVE   HALLUCINATIONS.  289 

So  far  the  instances  quoted  belong  to  what  may 
be  called  the  normal  type  of  collective  hallucination. 
In  the  last  case,  indeed,  one  percipient  saw  less  than 
the  other,  but  that  may  have  been  due  merely  to  the 
fact  that  she  awoke  later.  In  the  three  cases  which 
follow  the  impressions  produced  upon  the  percipients 
were  diverse,  and  there  is  no  evidence  that  they  were 
simultaneous.  In  the  first  of  the  three  cases,  indeed, 
the  circumstances  strongly  suggest  that  the  mind  of 
one  percipient  was  influenced  by  the  other.  But  in 
the  last  case,  where  the  percipients  were  far  apart,  and 
their  impressions  markedly  different,  it  seems  reason- 
able to  conjecture — their  interest  in  the  agent  being 
equal — that  the  results  produced  were  in  each  case 
directly  referable  to  the  dying  man. 

he  at  first  mistook  for  his  wife,  the  writer  in  the  Arena  proceeds  as 
follows  : — 

"  By  this  time  he  was  broad  awake,  and  sat  upright  in  bed  staring 
at  Ihe  figure.  He  noticed  that  it  was  a  woman  in  a  white  garment ; 
and  looking  sharply,  he  recognised  it,  as  he  thought,  as  one  of  his 
patients  who  was  very  ill.  Then  he  realised  that  this  could  not  be  so, 
and  that  if  any  one  was  in  the  room,  it  must  be  an  intruder  who  had 
no  right  to  be  there.  With  the  vague  thought  of  a  possible  burglar 
thus  disguised,  he  sprang  out  of  bed  and  grasped  his  revolver, 
which  he  was  accustomed  to  have  near  at  hand.  This  brought  him 
face  to  face  with  the  figure,  not  three  feet  away.  He  now  saw 
every  detail  of  dress,  complexion,  and  feature,  and  for  the  first  time 
recognised  the  fact  that  it  was  not  a  being  of  flesh  and  blood.  Then  it 
was  that,  in  quite  an  excited  manner,  he  called  his  wife,  hoping  that 
she  would  get  there  to  see  it  also.  But  the  moment  he  called  her 
name,  the  figure  disappeared,  leaving,  however,  the  intense  yellow 
light  behind,  and  which  they  both  observed  for  five  minutes  by  the 
watch  before  it  faded  out. 

"The  next  day  it  was  found  that  one  of  his  patients,  closely  resem- 
bling the  figure  he  had  seen,  had  died  a  few  minutes  before  he  saw  his 
vision, — had  died  calling  for  him. 

"  It  will  be  seen  that  this  story,  like  the  first  one  in  this  article,  is 
perfectly  authentic  in  every  partictiJar.  7 here  is  no  question  as  to  the 
facts." 

That,  no  doubt,  is  how  the  thing  ought  to  have  happened.  A 
revolver  and  a  watch  are  essential  to  a  properly  upholstered  ghost- 
story.  There  ought  to  have  been  the  dramatic  confrontation  of  the 
living  man  with  his  spectral  visitant ;  there  ought  to  have  been  the 
instant  recognition  and  as  instant  disappearance.  Above  all,  there 
ought  to  have  been  the  excfuisite  adjustment  in  the  times  of  vision  and 
death. 

19 


2QO  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

The  narrative  which  follows  was  originally  printed 
in  July  1883,  in  an  account  written  by  the  Warden, 
entitled  "The  Orphanage  and  Home,  Aberlour, 
Craigellachie."  It  will  be  observed  that  the  account, 
though  written  in  the  third  person,  is  actually  first 
hand. 

No.  85.— From  the  REV.  C  H.  JUPP,  Warden. 

"In  1875  a  man  died  leaving  a  widow  and  six  orphan 
children.  The  three  eldest  were  admitted  into  the  Orphanage. 
Three  years  afterwards  the  widow  died,  and  friends  succeeded 
in  getting  funds  to  send  the  rest  here,  the  youngest  being  about 
four  years  of  age.  [Late  one  evening,  about  six  months  after 
the  admission  of  the  younger  children,  some  visitors  arrived 
unexpectedly;  and]  the  Warden  agreed  to  take  a  bed  in  the 
little  ones'  dormitory,  which  contained  ten  beds,  nine  occupied. 

"In  the  morning,  at  breakfast,  the  Warden  made  the  follow- 
ing statement : — c  As  near  as  I  can  tell  I  fell  asleep  about  eleven 
o'clock,  and  slept  very  soundly  for  some  time.  I  suddenly  woke 
without  any  apparent  reason,  and  felt  an  impulse  to  turn  round, 
my  face  being  towards  the  wall,  from  the  children.  Before 
turning,  I  looked  up  and  saw  a  soft  light  in  the  room.  The  gas 
was  burning  low  in  the  hall,  and  the  dormitory  door  being  open, 
I  thought  it  probable  that  the  light  came  from  that  source.  It 
was  soon  evident,  however,  that  such  was  not  the  case.  I 
turned  round,  and  then  a  wonderful  vision  met  my  gaze.  Over 
the  second  bed  from  mine,  and  on  the  same  side  of  the  room, 
there  was  floating  a  small  cloud  of  light,  forming  a  halo  of  the 
brightness  of  the  moon  on  an  ordinary  moonlight  night. 

"  *  I  sat  upright  in  bed,  looking  at  this  strange  appearance, 
took  up  my  watch  and  found  the  hands  pointing  to  five  minutes 
to  one.  Everything  was  quiet,  and  all  the  children  sleeping 
soundly.  In  the  bed,  over  which  the  light  seemed  to  float, 
slept  the  youngest  of  the  six  children  mentioned  above. 

"  '  I  asked  myself,  "  Am  I  dreaming  ? "  No  !  I  was  wide 
awake.  I  was  seized  with  a  strong  impulse  to  rise  and  touch 
the  substance,  or  whatever  it  might  be  (for  it  was  about  five 
feet  high),  and  was  getting  up  when  something  seemed  to  hold 
me  back.  I  am  certain  I  heard  nothing,  yet  \felt  and  perfectly 
understood  the  words — "  No,  lie  clown,  it  won't  hurt  you."  I  at 
once  did  what  \Jelt  I  was  told  to  do.  I  fell  asleep  shortly  after- 
wards and  rose  at  half-past  five,  that  being  my  usual  time. 

"  *  At  six  o'clock  I  began  dressing  the  children,  beginning  at 
the  bed  furthest  from  the  one  in  wKch  I  slept.  Presently  I 
came  to  the  bed  over  which  I  had  seen  the  light  hovering.  I 


COLLECTIVE    HALLUCINATIONS. 

took  the  little  boy  out,  placed  him  on  my  knee,  and  put  on  some 
of  his  clothes.  The  child  had  been  talking  with  the  others; 
suddenly  he  was  silent.  And  then,  looking  me  hard  in  the  face 
with  an  extraordinary  expression,  he  said,  "  Oh,  Mr.  Jupp,  my 
mother  came  to  me  last  night.  Did  you  see  her?"  For  a 
moment  I  could  not  answer  the  child.  I  then  thought  it  better 
to  pass  it  off,  and  said,  "  Come,  we  must  make  haste,  or  we  shall 
be  late  for  breakfast."  ' 

"  The  child  never  afterwards  referred  to  the  matter,  we  are 
told,  nor  has  it  since  ever  been  mentioned  to  him.  The  Warden 
says  it  is  a  mystery  to  him;  he  simply  states  the  fact  and  there 
leaves  the  matter,  being  perfectly  satisfied  that  he  was  mistaken 
in  no  one  particular." 

In  answer  to  inquiries,  the  Rev.  C.  Jupp  writes 
to  us  : — 

"THE  ORPHANAGE  AND  CONVALESCENT  HOME, 
AEERLOUR,  CRAIGELLACHIE, 

November  I3///,  1883. 

"  I  fear  anything  the  little  boy  might  now  say  would  be  un- 
reliable, or  I  would  at  once  question  him.  Although  the  matter 
was  fully  discussed  at  the  time,  it  was  never  mentioned  in  the 
hearing  of  the  child;  and  yet  when,  at  the  request  of  friends, 
the  account  was  published  in  our  little  magazine,  and  the  child 
read  it,  his  countenance  changed,  and  looking  up,  he  said,  i  Mr. 
Jupp,  that  is  me.'  I  said,  '  Yes,  that  is  what  we  saw.'  He  said, 
*  Yes,'  and  then  seemed  to  fall  into  deep  thought,  evidently  with 
pleasant  remembrances,  for  he  smiled  so  sweetly  to  himself,  and 
seemed  to  forget  I  was  present. 

"  I  much  regret  now  that  I  did  not  learn  something  from  the 
child  at  the  time. 

"CHAS.  JUPP." 

In  answer  to  inquiries,  Mr.  Jupp  says  that  he  has 
never  had  any  other  hallucination  of  the  senses ;  and 
adds  : — 

"  My  wife  was  the  only  person  of  adult  age  to  whom  I 
mentioned  the  circumstance  at  the  time.  Shortly  after,  I 
mentioned  it  to  our  Bishop  and  Primus." 

Mrs.  Jupp  writes,  from  the  Orphanage,  on  June  23, 
1886:— 

"  This  is  to  certify  that  the  account  of  the  light  seen  by  the 
Warden  of  this  establishment  is  correct,  and  was  mentioned  to 
me  at  the  time  " — i.e.,  next  morning. 


2Q2  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  it  is  not  now  possible 
to  ascertain  whether  the  child's  experience  were 
of  the  nature  of  a  dream  or  a  borderland  hallucina- 
tion. But  the  ambiguity  does  not  affect  either  the 
interpretation  or  the  significance  of  the  incident. 

In  the  next  case  the  two  apparitions  were  not  only 
different,  but  were  seen  in  different  rooms.  The  time 
in  each  case  appears  to  have  been  within  an  hour  of 
midnight.  It  will  be  noticed  that  each  percipient 
is  doubtful  whether  to  class  her  experience  as  a 
dream  or  a  waking  vision.  If  dreams,  they  were 
certainly  of  an  unusual  type,  since  they  included 
in  each  case  an  impression  of  the  room  in  which 
they  occurred. 

No.  86.— From  SISTER  MARTHA. 

Account,  signed  by  herself,  which  Sister  Martha 
(Sister  of  the  Order  of  Saint  Charles)  gave  to  M. 
Ch.  Richet  at  Mirecourt — 

"On  Friday,  6th  March  1891,  I  was  called  to  nurse  M. 
Bastien.  At  night,  when  I  had  been  dozing  for  about  five 
minutes,  I  had  the  following  dream — if  I  may  call  it  a  dream ; 
I  think  I  was  sleeping.  A  light,  a  sound  came  from  the  fire- 
place, and  a  woman  stepped  out  whose  appearance  I  did  not 
recognise,  but  who  had  a  voice  like  Madame  Bastien's.  I  saw 
her  as  distinctly  as  I  see  you.  She  approached  the  bed  where 
C£cile  was  sleeping,  and  taking  her  hand,  said,  *  How  sweet 
Cdcile  is ! '  I  followed  her — in  my  dream,  crossing  myself  as 
I  went.  She  opened  the  door  and  vanished. 

"  I  cannot  say  the  exact  hour,  but  it  was  early  in  the  night, 
between  11  P.M.  and  i  A.M. — I  do  not  know  exactly,  for  I  had 
not  a  watch.  I  awoke  immediately  after  this  dream.  I  did  not 
waken  Cecile,  for  I  did  not  want  to  say  anything  to  her  about 
it,  but  as  the  dream  impressed  me  very  much,  I  told  it  to  her  the 
following  morning  when  I  awoke.  I  can  give  no  further  details 
about  the  dream  except  that  the  lady  carried  a  candle  and  had 
coloured  spots  on  her  garments. 

"  I  have  never  had  a  similar  dream  except  once,  when  I 
thought  I  saw  my  dead  mother  and  hekrd  her  say,  '  You  do  not 
remember  me  in  your  prayers.' " 


COLLECTIVE   HALLUCINATIONS.  293 

Madame  Houdaille  writes: — 

"  MIRECOURT,  20th  March>  1891. 

"  During  my  father's  illness  the  Sister  kept  watch  on  the  first 
floor,  and  my  brother  and  I  passed  the  evening  on  the  ground 
floor.  About  ten  o'clock  I  left  my  brother  and  went  upstairs  to 
bed.  Between  eleven  o'clock  and  midnight  (I  do  not  know 
whether  I  was  waking  or  sleeping,  probably  between  the  two) 
I  perceived,  near  my  bed,  a  white  shadow  like  a  phantom,  which 
I  had  not  time  to  recognise.  I  gave  a  loud  cry  of  terror  which 
startled  my  brother,  who  was  just  going  up  to  bed.  He  hastened 
to  my  room,  and  found  me  gazing  wildly  around.  The  rest  of 
the  night  passed  quietly. 

"  Next  morning  Cdcile  told  me  about  the  Sister's  dream. 

"  She,  Cecile,  had  seen  or  heard  nothing.  I  was  almost 
angry  with  her  and  her  tale,  and  treated  it  as  a  silly  dream, 
so  terrified  was  I  at  the  occurrence  of  the  two  apparitions  the 
same  night,  and  probably  at  the  same  hour.  Cecile  and  the 
Sister  knew  nothing  of  my  dream.  I  did  not  tell  it  to  the 
Sister  till  two  days  after  M.  Richet  and  Octave1  had  visited  the 
hospital."2 

In  the  next  case,  as  already  said,  the  two  percipients 
were  many  miles  apart.  The  impression  in  the  first 
narrative  should  probably  be  classed  as  a  dream  ;  in 
the  second  as  an  auditory  hallucination. 

No.  87.— From  SIR  LAWRENCE  JONES. 

"CRANMER  HALL,  FAKENHAM,  NORFOLK, 
April 26///,  1893. 

"On  August  20th,  1884,  I  was  staying  at  my  father-in-law's 
house  at  Bury  St.  Edmunds.  I  had  left  my  father  in  perfectly 
good  health  about  a  fortnight  before.  He  was  at  home  at  this 
address.  About  August  1 8th  I  had  had  a  letter  from  my  mother 
saying  that  my  father  was  not  quite  well,  and  that  the  doctor 
had  seen  him  and  made  very  light  of  the  matter,  attributing  his 
indisposition  to  the  extreme  heat  of  the  weather. 

"  I  was  not  in  any  way  anxious  on  my  father's  account,  as  he 
was  rather  subject  to  slight  bilious  attacks. 

"  I  should  add,  though,  that  I  had  been  spending  that  day, 
August  2oth,  at  Cambridge,  and  should  have  stayed  the  night 
there  had  not  a  sort  of  vague  presentiment  haunted  me  that 
possibly  there  would  be  a  letter  from  home  the  next  morning. 

1  M.  Octave  Iloimaille. 

2  Annales  des  Sciences  Psychiques,  vol.  i.  pp.  98,  99. 


294  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

My  wife,  too,  had  a  similar  feeling  that  if  I  stayed  the  night  at 
Cambridge  I  might  regret  it.  In  consequence  of  this  feeling 
I  returned  to  Bury,  and  that  night  woke  up  suddenly  to  find 
myself  streaming  with  perspiration  and  calling  out :  c  Something 
dreadful  is  happening ;  I  don't  know  what.'  The  impression  of 
horror  remained  some  time,  but  at  last  I  fell  asleep  till  the 
morning. 

"  My  father,  Sir  Willoughby  Jones,  died  very  suddenly  of 
heart  disease  about  i  A.M.  on  August  2ist.  He  was  not  in  his 
room  at  the  moment,  but  was  carried  back  to  his  room  and 
restoratives  applied,  but  in  vain. 

"  My  brother  Herbert  and  I  were  the  only  two  of  the  family 
absent  from  home  at  the  time.  The  thoughts  of  those  present 
(my  mother,  brother,  and  three  sisters)  no  doubt  turned  most 
anxiously  towards  us,  and  it  is  to  a  telepathic  impression  from 
them  in  their  anxiety  and  sorrow  that  I  attribute  the  intimations 
we  received. 

"  LAWRENCE  J.  JONES." 

Lady  Jones  writes  : — 

"  I  have  a  vivid  remembrance  of  the  occurrence  related 
above  by  my  husband.  I  was  sound  asleep  when  he  awoke, 
and  seizing  me  by  [the]  wrist,  exclaimed:  'Such  a  dreadful  thing 
is  happening,'  and  I  had  much  difficulty  in  persuading  him  that 
there  was  nothing  wrong. 

**  He  went  to  sleep  again,  but  was  much  relieved  in  the  morn- 
ing by  finding  a  long  letter  from  Sir  Willoughby,  posted  the  day 
before,  and  written  in  good  spirits.  Having  read  this  and  gone 
to  his  dressing-room,  however,  he  soon  returned  with  the  tele- 
gram summoning  him  hgrne  at  once,  and  said  as  he  came  in : 
'  My  impression  in  the  night  was  only  too  true.5 

"EVELYN  M.  JONES." 

Mr.  Herbert  Jones,  the  other  percipient,  describes 
his  experience  as  follows  : — 

"  KNEBWORTH  RECTORY,  STEVENAGE. 
"Recollections  of  August  2O/#,  1884. 

"  I  had  spent  the  day  at  Harpendcn,  and  returned  home 
about  8  P.M.,  and  went  to  bed  about  10.30. 

"  I  woke  at  12  o'clock,  hearing  my  name  called  twice,  as  I 
fancied.  I  lit  my  candle,  and,  seeing  nothing,  concluded  it  was 
a  dream — looked  at  my  watch,  and  went  to  sleep  again. 

"  I  woke  again  and  heard  people  carrying  something  down- 
stairs from  the  upper  storey,  just  outa:de  my  room.  I  lit  my 
candle,  got  out  of  bed,  and  waited  till  the  men  were  outside 


COLLECTIVE   HALLUCINATIONS. 

my  door.    They  seemed  to  be  carrying  something  heavy,  and 
came  down  step  by  step. 

"  I  opened  my  door,  and  it  was  pitch  dark.  I  was  puzzled 
and  dumbfounded.  I  went  into  my  sitting-room  and  into  the 
hall,  but  everything  was  dark  and  quiet.  I  went  back  to  bed 
convinced  I  had  been  the  sport  of  another  nightmare.  It  was 
about  2  A.M.  by  my  watch.  At  breakfast  next  morning  on  my 
plate  wab  a  telegram  telling  me  to  come  home. 

"  This  whole  story  may  be  nothing,  but  it  was  odd  that  I 
should  have  twice  &ot  up  in  one  night,  and  that  during  that 
night  and  those  hours  my  father  was  dying. 

"  H.  E.  JONES. 
«  April  tfh,  1893." 


Sir  Lawrence  Jones  adds:  — 

"  My  brother  was  then  a  curate  in  London,  living  at  32  Palace 
Street,  Westminster,  where  the  above  experience  took  place. 

"  L.  J.  J.» 

A  case  somewhat  resembling  this  last  is  recorded  by 
Professor  Richct  (Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  v.  pp.  163,  164). 
On  the  night  of  the  14-iSth  November  1887,  when  his 
physiological  laboratory  in  Paris  was  burnt,  two  of  his 
intimate  friends,  M.  Ferrari  and  M.  H6ricourt,  dreamt 
of  fire  ;  and  on  the  evening  of  the  isth  Madame  B. 
(the  hypnotic  subject  referred  to  in  Chapter  V.)  was 
hypnotised  by  M.  Gibert  at  Havre  and  "sent  on  a 
journey"  [i.e.,  in  imagination]  to  Paris  to  visit,  amongst 
others,  M.  Richet.  Shortly  afterwards  she  awoke 
herself  by  crying  out  in  great  distress,  "  It  is  burning." 
Unfortunately,  those  present  contented  themselves 
with  calming  her  excitement,  and  did  not  at  the  time 
inquire  into  the  nature  of  her  impression.  But  the 
triple  coincidence  is  certainly  remarkable. 

A  case  which  may  perhaps  be  referred  to  the 
same  category  is  recorded  by  the  Rev.  A.  T.  Fryer  in 
the  Journal  of  the  S.P.R.  for  June  1890.  Mr.  C. 
Williams  died  at  Plaxtol,  Sevenoaks,  on  Sunday,  April 
28th,  1889,  having  been  confined  to  his  bed  with 
pleuro-pneumonia  since  the  preceding  Tuesday.  On 
Friday  the  26th  hfs  figure  was  seen  in  the  street  by 


296  APPARITIONS  AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

Mr.  Hind  at  about  10.40  A.M.,  and  on  the  day  follow- 
ing at  about  I  P.M.  by  two  ladies,  Miss  Dalison  and 
Miss  Sinclair,  simultaneously.  None  of  the  per- 
cipients were  aware  of  Mr.  Williams'  illness.  It  was 
impossible  that  the  figure  seen  could  have  been  the 
real  man,  and,  as  Mr.  Fryer  shows  that  a  mistake 
of  identity  was  under  the  circumstances  extremely 
improbable,  it  seems  not  unlikely  that  we  have  here 
to  deal  with  a  case  of  two  telepathic  hallucinations 
originated  independently  and  at  a  considerable  interval 
by  the  same  agent. 


297 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

SOME  LESS  COMMON   TYPES   OF  TELEPATHIC 
HALLUCINATION. 

THE  hallucinations  so  far  dealt  with  belong  to  classes 
numerically  strong,  and  the  narratives  quoted  could 
be  paralleled  over  and  over  again  from  our  records  by 
other  narratives  equally  well  attested.  And  this  fact 
furnishes  in  itself  a  strong  presumption  of  the  sub- 
stantial accuracy  of  the  accounts  given.  For  as  there 
is  little  in  the  kind  of  incident  described — the  bare 
occurrence  of  a  hallucination  coincidently  with  an 
external  event  or  with  another  hallucination — to 
suggest  the  work  of  the  imagination,  there  is  little 
warrant  for  ascribing  this  consensus  of  testimony 
among  the  narratives  to  any  other  cause  than  a 
common  foundation  in  fact.  The  episodes  consist, 
indeed,  of  such  simple  elements  as  to  leave  small  room 
for  embellishment  Moreover,  by  those  who  accept 
the  theory  of  telepathy  an  additional  argument  for 
the  authenticity  of  these  narratives  may  be  found  in 
the  consideration  that  in  that  theory  they  receive  a 
simple  and  sufficient  explanation.  But  we  meet 
occasionally  with  accounts  of  hallucinatory  experi- 
ences which  do  not  fall  readily  under  any  of  the 
comparatively  simple  categories  already  discussed. 
The  mere  difficulty  of  explaining  the  genesis  of 
hallucinations  of  such  aberrant  types  would  not,  in 
the  present  stage  of  our  knowledge,  be  an  argument 
against  their  authenticity.  But  it  serves  to  rob  them 
of  the  support  wfrich  they  might  otherwise  have 


298  APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

received  from  their  affiliation  with  better  known  forms 
of  hallucination ;  whilst  the  recent  first-hand  evidence 
actually  available  is  not  sufficient  in  itself  to  sub- 
stantiate them.  Whilst,  therefore,  such  cases  should 
be  duly  recorded  and  may  legitimately  be  discussed, 
it  seems  best  to  await  the  receipt  of  further  evidence 
before  a  final  judgment  is  passed  upon  them.  But  in 
some  instances  there  is  a  further  reason  why  the 
question  should  at  most  be  held  unproven.  Some  of 
the  features  which  distinguish  these  cases  from 
ordinary  telepathic  hallucinations,  whilst  occurring 
rarely  in  well-attested  recent  narratives,  are  to  be 
found  more  commonly  in  remote,  uncorroborated,  and 
traditional  stories.  This  circumstance  is,  of  course,  a 
strong  argument  against  their  genuineness,  since  it 
proves  that  the  imagination  tends  to  create  such 
features.  But  it  is  not  a  conclusive  argument.  The 
imagination  may  itself  have  been  inspired  in  the  first 
instance  by  fact;  it  may  have  copied,  not  bettered, 
nature.  That  the  legendary  epics  of  the  older  world 
have  invented  winged  dragons  is  clearly  not  an  argu- 
ment that  can  weigh  against  positive  evidence  for  the 
existence  in  a  still  more  remote  past  of  pterodactyls. 

Reciprocal  Cases. 

These  considerations  apply  with  ru!!  fence  tu  the 
first  of  the  dubious  types  here  to  be  considered.  In 
publishing  seven  first-hand  "reciprocal"  cases  in  1886 
(Phantasms,  vol.  ii.  p.  167)  Mr.  Gurncy  pointed  out 
that  the  evidence  then  available  was  "  so  small  that 
the  genuineness  of  the  type  might  fairly  be  called  in 
question."  Still,  regarding  it  as  probably  genuine,  he 
anticipated  that  we  should  ultimately  obtain  more 
well-attested  specimens  of  it.  In  the  eight  years 
which  have  elapsed  since  Mr.  Gurney  wrote  this 
anticipation  has  met  with  only  partial  fulfilment.  We 
have  met  with  but  two  recent  well-attested  cases  which 
clearly  fall  under  the  same  category  as  those  already 


LESS  COMMON   TYPES   OF   HALLUCINATION.   2Q9 

given.  One  of  these  cases  has  already  been  quoted 
(No.  63),  and  was  indeed  included  in  the  supplemen- 
tary chapter  of  Phantasms  of '  t 'he  Living;  the  other  is 
as  follows  : — 

No.  88. — From  the  REV.  C  L.  EVANS. 

"FORTON,  GARSTANG. 
(Received  on  the  iWt  of  September  1889.) 

"Two  years  ago    I    had  occasion   to  undergo   a   course  of 

magnetism,  under  the  treatment  of  Miss .     I  was  under  her 

trcatmcnt  for  six  weeks,  and  derived  considerable  benefit  from 
her  treatment.  A  warm  friendship  sprang  up  between  us,  as 
she  had  wonderfully  improved  my  sight.  I  went  up  to  St. 
Edmund  Hall,  Oxford,  at  the  commencement  of  the  October 
term,  as  my  eyes  were  so  much  stronger.  One  afternoon,  as  I 
had  just  come  in  from  the  river,  being  rather  tired,  I  sat  down 
for  a  minute  before  I  changed,  when,  to  my  great  surprise,  the 
door  opened,  and  Miss appeared  to  walk  in. 

"  She  was  looking  rather  pale  at  the  time,  and  looked  intently 
at  me  for  about  a  minute,  then  left  the  room  as  slowly  as  she  had 
walked  in.  I  was  much  alarmed,  as  I  fancied  that  something 
must  have  happened  to  her,  and  I  immediately  sat  down  and 

wrote  off  two  letters,  one  to  Miss ,  asking  if  she  was  well, 

and  another  to  my  mother,  telling  her  of  the  strange  occurrence. 
The  next  day  I  had  back  the  two  replies.  My  mother  said 

that  on  that  very  afternoon  she  had  called  on  Miss  ,  and 

naturally  they  had  been  discussing  my  case.     She  said  that  my 

description  of  Miss Js  dress,  etc.,  was  perfectly  accurate.     I 

then  read  Miss 's  note.    She  stated  that  my  mother  had  called, 

and  had  left  at  about  half-past  four,  she  then  had  lain  down  for  a 
few  minutes,  and  was  thinking  and  wishing  to  see  me.  She  had  a 
distinct  impression  that  she  saw  me  during  this  sleep,  or  trance, 
but  when  she  awoke  the  impression  was  not  very  vivid.  The 
time  exactly  coincided,  and  she  said  that  my  description  of  her 
was  very  accurate.  At  the  time  that  she  appeared  to  me  I  was 
not  thinking  in  the  least  of  her. 

"CHARLES  LLOYD  EVANS." 

I  called  on  Mr.  Evans  on  the  2Oth  April  1892,  and 
had  a  long  conversation  with  him.  The  following 
notes  of  my  interview  were  made  at  the  time  and 
written  out  a  few  days  later  : — 

"The  occurrence  took  place  in  November  1887.  It  would 
be  about  4.15  P.M.  He  was  resting  in  his  chair — in  boating 


3OO  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

clothes  —  with  the  door  ajar.  Heard  a  knock  or  sound  as 
of  some  one  entering  ;  turned  round  and  saw  Miss  -  come 
into  the  room  and  walk  towards  him.  She  was  dressed  in  red 
bodice  and  dark  silk  skirt  (a  not  unfamiliar  dress),  but  with  a 
silver  filigree  cross  hanging  from  a  chain  round  her  neck  which 
he  had  never  seen  before.  Learnt  afterwards  that  the  cross  had 
been  given  by  General  -  •  only  a  few  days  before  the  incident. 

"The  figure  looked  him  straight  in  the  face,  then  seemed  to 
fade  away  bit  by  bit. 

"  He  was  himself  perfectly  well  and  not  a  bit  sleepy. 

"  He  has  had  no  other  hallucinations.  His  age  at  the  time 
was  twenty." 

Mr.  Evans's  mother  writes  :  — 

v  April  7,7  tli,  1892. 

"  In  reply  to  the  questions  you  asked  me  about  the  apparition 
of  Miss  -  to  my  son,  when  at  Oxford,  I  can  fully  verify  his 
statement.  He  wrote  to  me  the  same  afternoon,  begging  me  to 
call  upon  Miss  -  and  see  if  she  was  ill,  detailing  me  the  account 
of  what  he  had  seen,  and  also  describing  her  dress  minutely  and 
the  cross  she  was  wearing.  I  called  upon  Miss  -  the  following 
day,  and  read  her  my  son's  letter,  giving  the  hour  at  which  she 
had  appeared  to  him.  She  told  me  that  she  had  not  been  feel- 
ing well,  and  was  lying  down  on  the  couch  thinking,  too,  of  my 
son,  and  that  she  went  off  into  a  sort  of  trance,  and  she  saw 
him  distinctly  looking  at  her  and  he  was  very  pale.  This  made 
a  deep  impression  upon  me,  for  I  must  own  myself  that  I  hardly 
believed  it  to  be  possible.  However,  Miss  -  told  me  that  my 
son  had  at  once  written  to  her,  fearing  that  she  must  be  ill,  and 
told  her  the  circumstances  under  which  she  appeared  to  him. 
When  I  saw  Miss  -  she  was  then  wearing  the  same  dress  and 
filigree  cross  which  Charlie  had  described  to  me  in  his  letter, 
and  which  he  had  never  seen  her  wearing  before.  I  fear  that  I 
cannot  now  find  my  son's  letter,  but  should  I  come  across  it  I 
will  forward  it  to  you.  Miss  -  ,  however,  can  corroborate  all 
that  I  have  said, 

"MARY  E.  EVANS." 

Afterwards  I  saw  Miss  -  .     The  following  notes 
of  the  interview  were  made  the  same  day  :  — 


"July  17*6,  1892. 

ct  Her  account  of  the  matter  is  that  Mrs.  Evans  (percipient's 
mother)  called  on  her  on  the  afternoon  of  the  vision  and  talked 
much  about  her  son.  After  Mrs.  Evans  left  —  probably  about 
5.30  P.M.  —  Miss  -  ,  as  usual,  lay  down  to  sleep  for  a  few 
minutes  ;  woke  about  6  P.M.  with  the  recollection  of  having  seen 


LESS  COMMON  TYPES  OF  HALLUCINATION.   3OI 

Mr.  C.  L.  Evans.  Can  recall  no  details  of  appearance — merely 
the  recollection  of  having  been  in  the  same  room  with  him. 

"  The  next  day  she  received  a  letter  from  Mr.  C.  L.  Evans 
telling  of  his  vision,  and  on  the  same  day  another  visit  from  his 
mother. 

"  Miss  was  wearing  the  dress  and  filigree  cross  de- 
scribed. The  cross,  as  stated,  had  been  given  to  her  only  a  few 
days  before. 

"Miss has  kept  Mr.  Evans's  letter.1  She  has  had  many 

visions  and  dreams  in  her  life,  but  she  cannot  recall  another 
relating  to  Mr.  Evans. 

"  She  is  not  sure  of  the  time  at  which  her  vision  or  dream 
occurred.  It  may  have  been  earlier  than  6  P.M.,  her  hours 
being  very  irregular. 

"  She  had  compared  notes  with  Mr.  Evans,  and  was  under  the 
impression  that  their  experiences  coincided.  But  I  think  that 
her  first  statement— 6  P.M. — is  probably  correct.  If  so,  her 
dream  would  have  come  one  and  a  half  to  two  hours  after  Mr. 
Evans's  vision." 

If  the  above  account  correctly  describes  what  took 
place — and  I  know  of  no  ground  for  doubting  either 
the  accuracy  or  the  good  faith  of  the  narrators — it 

seems  clear  either  that    Mr.  Evans  and  Miss  

reciprocally  affected    each  other,  or  that  Mr.  Evans, 

whilst  impressing    Miss  with   the  idea  of  his 

presence,  was  able  himself  to  attain  to  a  supernormal 
perception  of  her  surroundings.  For  the  latter  ex- 
planation, however,  we  have  no  support  in  analogy, 
and  it  seems  less  unwarrantable  provisionally  to  re- 
gard this  case  and  others  like  it  as  being  reciprocally 
telepathic.  It  should,  perhaps,  be  pointed  out,  as 
bearing  upon  the  extreme  rarity  of  cases  of  the  kind, 
that  there  may  be  instances  of  reciprocal  affection  of 
which,  from  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  we  could  not 
hope  to  obtain  evidence.  It  is  conceivable,  for  in- 
stance, that  in  the  ordinary  case  of  an  apparition  at 
death,  the  dying  man  may  himself  have  been  a  per- 
cipient as  well  as  an  agent,  since  circumstances  rarely 
permit  of  his  side  of  the  experience  being  recorded. 
It  is  conceivable  also  that  in  cases  of  collective 

1  She  was,  however,  unable  to  find  it. 


3O2  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

hallucination  the  effect  may  really  be  a  reciprocal  one, 
the  two  persons  concerned  simultaneously  affecting 
and  being  affected  by  each  other,  until  the  force  so 
generated  explodes  into  hallucination.  But  in  the 
present  state  of  our  knowledge  it  would  be  premature 
to  speculate  further. 

A  Misinterpreted  Message. 

The  next  case  also  seems  susceptible  of  more  than 
one  explanation.  The  account  which  follows  was 
written  in  1890. 

No.  89. — From  Miss  C.  L.  HAWKINS-DEMPSTER,  24 
Portman  Square,  W,    • 

"  I  ran  downstairs  and  entered  the  drawing-room  at  7.30  P.M., 
believing  I  had  kept  my  two  sisters  waiting-  for  dinner.  They 
had  gone  to  dinner,  the  room  was  empty.  Behind  a  long"  sofa 
I  saw  Mr.  II.  standing-.  He  moved  three  steps  nearer.  I  heard 
nothing.  I  was  not  at  all  afraid  or  surprised,  only  felt  concern 
as  [to]  what  he  wanted,  as  he  was  in  South  America.  I  learnt 
next  morning  that  at  that  moment  his  mother  was  breathing  her 
last.  I  went  and  arranged  her  for  burial,  my  picture  still  hang- 
ing above  the  bed,  between  the  portraits  of  her  two  absent  sons. 

u  I  was  in  the  habit  of  hearing  often  from  [Mr.  H.],  and  was 
not  at  that  moment  anxious  about  Mrs.  H.'s  health,  though  she 
was  aged.  I  had  had  twenty-five  days  before  the  grief  of 
losing  an  only  brother.  No  other  persons  were  present  at  the 
time."1 

In  answer  to  further  inquiries,  we  learnt  from  Miss 
Hawkins-Dempster  that  the  above  incident  occurred 
on  New  Year's  Eve,  1876-77;  the  room  was  lighted  by 
"  one  bright  lamp  and  a  fire,"  and  the  figure  did  not 
seem  to  go  away,  she  merely  "ceased  to  see  it."  She 
used  to  see  Mrs.  H.  often,  and  was  in  no  anxiety  as  to 
her  health  at  the  time.  Mrs.  H.  was  very  old,  but  not 
definitely  ill.  Miss  Hawkins-Dempster  corrected  her 
first  statement  as  to  the  exactness  of  the  coincidence 

1  It  should  be  explained  that  this  account  w°s  written  on  a  "census" 
form,  in  the  limited  space  provided  for  answers  to  our  printed  questions. 


LESS  COMMON   TYPES   OF   HALLUCINATION.    303 

by  informing  us  that  Mrs.  H.  died  in  the  morning  of 
the  same  day  on  which  the  apparition  was  seen. 

Miss  Hawkins-Dempster  mentioned  what  she  had 
seen  to  her  sister,  who  thus  corroborates : — 

"July  is///,  1892. 

"  I  heard  of  my  sister  Miss  C.  L.  Hawkins- Dempster's  vision 
of  Mr.  H.  in  the  drawing-room  at  7.30  P.M.  on  New  Year's  Eve, 
1876-77,  immediately  after  it  happened,  and  before  hearing  that 
Mrs.  H.  died  the  same  day,  the  news  of  which  reached  us  later 
that  evening. 

"  H.  H.  DEMPSTER." 

We  have  verified  the  date  of  death  at  Somerset 
House. 

Miss  Hawkins-Dempster  has  had  one  other  experi- 
ence— an  apparition  seen  also  by  her  sister  and  their 
governess.  They  were  children  at  the  time,  aged 
about  fourteen  and  twelve  respectively. 

Mr.  Myers  had  an  interview  with  the  Misses 
Hawkins-Dempster  on  July  i6th,  1892,  and  writes  as 
follows  the  next  day: — 

"  Miss  C.  Hawkins-Dempster's  veridical  experience  is  well 
remembered  by  both  sisters.  The  decedent  was  a  very  old 
lady,  who  was  on  very  intimate  terms  with  them,  and  had  special 
reasons  for  thinking  of  Miss  C.  Hawkins-Dcmpstpr  in  con- 
nection with  the  son  whose  figure  appeared.  He  was  at  the 
other  side  of  the  world,  and  most  certainly  had  not  heard  of 
his  mother's  death  at  the  time. 

"The  figure  was  absolutely  life-like.  Miss  Hawkins-Dempster 
noticed  the  slight  cast  of  the  eye  and  the  delicate  hands.  The 
figure  rested  one  hand  on  the  back  of  a  chair  and  held  the  other 
out.  Miss  Hawkins-Dempster  called  out,  '  What  can  I  do  for 
you?'  forgetting  for  the  moment  the  impossibility  that  it  could 
be  the  real  man.  Then  she  simply  ceased  to  see  the  figure. 

"  She  was  in  good  health  at  the  time,  and  her  thoughts  were 
occupied  with  business  matters." 

We  have  a  parallel  case  amongst  our  records. 
Miss  V.  saw  in  church  the  hallucinatory  figure  of  an 
acquaintance  looking  at  her,  and  subsequently  learned 
that  he  was  at  the  time  at  the  deathbed  of  his  mother. 
A  few  other  cases  are  given  in  Phantasms  of  the 


304  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

Living.  I  should  be  disposed  to  explain  these  narra- 
tives as  instances  of  the  misinterpretation  of  a  tele- 
pathic message.  I  should  conjecture,  that  is,  that  the 
impulse  received  from  the  dying  woman,  instead  of 
giving  rise,  as  in  an  ordinary  case,  to  a  hallucination  of 
herself,  called  up  in  the  percipient's  mind,  whether 
through  the  operation  of  associated  ideas  or  from 
some  other  cause,  the  image  of  a  near  relative. 
Indeed,  seeing  how  potent  is  the  influence  of  associated 
ideas,  it  is  perhaps  a  matter  for  wonder  that  such  mis- 
carriages do  not  more  often  occur.  It  should  be  stated 
that,  beyond  their  rarity,  there  is  no  special  reason  to 
mistrust  stories  of  this  type.  Their  distinguishing 
feature  is  not  apparently  of  a  kind  which  appeals 
readily  to  the  imagination.  Indeed,  by  most  persons 
the  want  of  precise  correspondence  would  probably  be 
regarded  as  a  serious  blemish  in  the  story.  Certainly 
cases  of  the  kind  occur  rarely,  if  at  all,  among  second- 
hand and  traditional  narratives. 


Heteroplastic  Hallucinations. 

But  another  possible  explanation  of  the  incident 
suggests  itself.  It  has  already  been  conjectured  that 
in  some  cases  of  hallucination  or  other  impression, 
the  percipient's  vision  may  have  originated  not  in  the 
mind  of  the  person  primarily  concerned,  but  in  that 
of  some  bystander.1  Conversely,  the  image  seen  in 
the  narrative  just  cited  may  have  been  flashed  directly 
from  the  dying  woman's  mind.  In  the  case  which 
follows  a  picture  of  the  past  preserved  in  the  memory 
of  one  of  two  friends  appears  to  have  been  spontane- 
ously transferred  to  the  mind  of  the  other. 

The  case  was  sent  to  Dr.  Hodgson  on  the  i8th 
May  1888,  and  was  published  in  the  Arena  for 
February  1889. 

« 

1  See,  for  instance,  Nos.  47,  75,  87,  etc. 


LESS  COMMON   TYPES   OF   HALLUCINATION.   305 


No.  90. — From  MRS.  G- 


".  .  .  For  nearly  two  weeks  I  have  had  a  lady  friend  visiting 
us  from  Chicago,  and  last  Sunday  we  tried  the  cards  and  in 
every  instance  I  told  the  colour  and  kind ;  but  only  two  or  three 
times  was  enabled  to  give  the  exact  number.  .  .  . 

"  I  must  write  you  of  something  that  occurred  last  night.  After 
this  lady,  whom  I  have  mentioned  above,  had  retired,  and 
almost  immediately  after  we  had  extinguished  the  light,  there 
suddenly  appeared  before  me  a  beautiful  lawn  and  coming 
toward  me  a  chubby,  yellow-haired  little  boy,  and  by  his  side  a 
brown  dog  which  closely  resembled  a  fox.  The  dog  had  on  a 
brass  collar  and  the  child's  hand  was  under  the  collar  just  as  if 
he  was  leading  or  pulling  the  dog.  The  vision  was  like  a  flash, 
came  and  went  in  an  instant.  I  immediately  told  my  friend,  and 
she  said,  'Do  you  know  where  there  are  any  matches?'  and 
began  to  hurriedly  clamber  out  of  bed.  I  struck  a  light,  she 
plunged  into  her  trunk,  brought  out  a  book,  and  pasted  in  the 
front  was  a  picture  of  her  little  boy  and  his  dog.  They  were 
not  in  the  same  position  that  I  saw  them,  but  the  dog  looked 
exceedingly  familiar.  Her  little  boy  passed  into  the  beyond 
about  four  years  ago.  .  ." 

Mrs.  F.  corroborates  as  follows : — 

11  May  i8/^,  1888. 

"  I  wish  to  corroborate  the  statements  of  Mrs.  N,  G.  relative 
to  ...  and  her  wonderful  vision  of  my  little  boy,  and  my  old 
home.  Mrs.  G.  never  saw  the  place,  or  the  little  child,  and 
never  even  heard  of  the  peculiar-looking  dog,  which  was  my 
little  son's  constant  companion  out  of  doors.  She  never  saw 
the  photograph,  which  was  pasted  in  the  back  of  my  Bible  and 
packed  away. 

"(Signed)         I.  F." 

In  this  case,  it  will  be  noted,  the  vision  was  the 
direct  sequel  of  some  partially  successful  experiments 
in  thought-transference  ;  and  the  transferred  impres- 
sion fell  short  of  actual  hallucination.  In  the 
following  case  there  is  no  evidence  of  any  special 
rapport  between  the  percipient  and  the  person  who, 
on  this  hypothesis,  acted  as  the  agent ;  and  the  per- 
cipient's impression,  took  the  form  of  a  completely 
externalised  hallucination. 

20 


306  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

No.  91.— From  FRANCES  REDDELL. 

"  ANTONY,  TORPOINT, 

December  I4/7/,  1882. 

"  Helen  Alexander  (maid  to  Lady  Waldegrave)  was  lying 
here  very  ill  with  typhoid  fever,  and  was  attended  by  me.  I 
was  standing  at  the  table  by  her  bedside,  pouring  out  her 
medicine,  at  about  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  the  4th 
October  1880.  I  heard  the  call-bell  ring  (this  had  been  heard 
twice  before  during  the  night  in  that  same  week),  and  was 
attracted  by  the  door  of  the  room  opening,  and  by  seeing  a 
person  entering  the  room  whom  I  instantly  felt  to  be  the  mother 
of  the  sick  woman.  She  had  a  brass  candlestick  in  her  hand,  a 
red  shawl  over  her  shoulders,  and  a  flannel  petticoat  on  which 
had  a  hole  in  the  front.  I  looked  at  her  as  much  as  to  say,  *I 
am  glad  you  have  come,'  but  the  woman  looked  at  me  sternly, 
as  much  as  to  say,  '  Why  wasn't  I  sent  for  before?  '  I  gave  the 
medicine  to  Helen  Alexander,  and  then  turned  round  to  speak 
to  the  vision,  but  no  one  was  there.  She  had  gone.  She  was  a 
short,  dark  person,  and  very  stout.  At  about  six  o'clock  that 
morning  Helen  Alexander  died.  Two  days  after,  her  parents 
and  a  sister  came  to  Antony,  and  arrived  between  one  and  two 
o'clock  in  the  morning  ;  I  and  another  maid  let  them  in,  and  it 
gave  me  a  great  turn  when  I  saw  the  living-  likeness  of  the 
vision  I  had  seen  two  nights  before.  I  told  the  sister  about  the 
vision,  and  she  said  that  the  description  of  the  dress  exactly 
answered  to  her  mother's,  and  that  they  had  brass  candlesticks 
at  home  exactly  like  the  one  described.  There  was  not  the 
slightest  resemblance  between  the  mother  and  daughter. 

"  FRANCES  REDDELL." 

Frances  Reddell  fortunately  described  her  vision  to 
her  mistress,  Mrs.  Pole-Carew,  of  Antony,  Torpoint, 
Devonport,  within  a  few  hours  of  its  occurrence,  and 
before  her  encounter  with  the  original.  Mrs.  Pole- 
Carew  writes  as  follows : — 

"  $\st  December  1883. 

"  In  October  1880,  Lord  and  Lady  Waldegrave  came  with 
their  Scotch  maid,  Helen  Alexander,  to  stay  with  us.  [The 
account  then  describes  how  Helen  was  discovered  to  have  caught 
typhoid  fever,  and  pending  the  arrival  of  a  regular  nurse,  was 
nursed  for  several  days  by  Frances  Reddell.  On  the  Sunday 
week,  Mrs.  Pole-Carew  continues],  I  allowed  Reddell  to  sit  up 
with  Helen  again  that  night,  to  give  her  the  medicine  and  food, 
which  were  to  be  taken  constantly.  At  &bout  4.30  that  night,  or 
rather  Monday  morning,  Reddell  looked  at  her  watch,  poured 


LESS   COMMON    TYPES   OF   HALLUCINATION.    307 

out  the  medicine,  and  was  bending  over  the  bed  to  give  it  to 
Helen  when  the  call-bell  in  the  passage  rang.  She  said  to  herself, 
*  There's  that  tiresome  bell  with  the  wire  caught  again/  (It 
seems  it  did  occasionally  ring  of  itself  in  this  manner.)  At  that 
moment,  however,  she  heard  the  door  open,  and  looking  round, 
saw  a  very  stout  old  woman  walk  in.  She  was  dressed  in  a 
nightgown  and  red  flannel  petticoat,  and  carried  an  old-fashioned 
brass  candlestick  in  her  hand.  The  petticoat  had  a  hole  rubbed 
in  it.  She  walked  into  the  room  and  appeared  to  be  going 
towards  the  dressing-table  to  put  her  candle  down.  She  was 
a  perfect  stranger  to  Reddell,  who,  however,  merely  thought, 
'  This  is  her  mother  come  to  see  after  her,'  and  she  felt  quite 
glad  it  was  so,  accepting  the  idea  without  reasoning  upon  it,  as 
one  would  in  a  dream.  She  thought  the  mother  looked  annoyed, 
possibly  at  not  having  been  sent  for  before.  She  then  gave 
Helen  the  medicine,  and  turning  round,  found  that  the  appari- 
tion had  disappeared,  and  that  the  door  was  shut.  A  great 
change,  meanwhile,  had  taken  place  in  Helen,  and  Reddell 
fetched  me,  who  sent  off  for  the  doctor,  and  meanwhile  applied 
hot  poultices,  etc.,  but  Helen  died  a  little  before  the  doctor 
came.  She  was  quite  conscious  up  to  about  half-an-hour  before 
she  died,  when  she  seemed  to  be  going  to  sleep. 
^  "  During  the  early  days  of  her  illness  Helen  had  written  to  a 
sister,  mentioning  her  being  unwell,  but  making  nothing  of  it, 
and  as  she  never  mentioned  any  one  but  this  sister,  it  was 
supposed  by  the  household,  to  whom  she  was  a  perfect  stranger, 
that  she  had  no  other  relation  alive.  Reddell  was  always 
offering  to  write  for  her,  but  she  always  declined,  saying  there 
was  no  need,  she  would  write  herself  in  a  day  or  two.  No  one 
at  home,  therefore,  knew  anything  of  her  being  so  ill,  and  it  is, 
therefore,  remarkable  that  her  mother,  a  far  from  nervous 
person,  should  have  said  that  evening  going  up  to  bed,  '  I  am 
sure  Helen  is  very  ill.' 

"  Reddell  told  me  and  my  daughter  of  the  apparition,  about 
an  hour  after  Helen's  death,  prefacing  with,  'I  am  not  super- 
stitious or  nervous,  and  I  wasn't  the  least  frightened,  but  her 
mother  came  last  night,'  and  she  then  told  the  story,  giving  a 
careful  description  of  the  figure  she  had  seen.  The  relations 
were  asked  to  come  to  the  funeral,  and  the  father,  mother,  and 
sister  came,  and  in  the  mother  Reddell  recognised  the  apparition, 
as  I  did  also,  for  Reddell's  description  had  been  most  accurate, 
even  to  the  expression,  which  she  had  ascribed  to  annoyance,  but 
which  was  due  to  deafness.  It  was  judged  best  not  to  speak 
about  it  to  the  mother,  but  Reddell  told  the  sister,  who  said  the 
description  of  the  figure  corresponded  exactly  with  the  probable 
appearance  of  her  mother  if  roused  in  the  night ;  that  they  had 
exactly  such  a  candlestick  at  home,  and  that  there  was  a  hole 
in  her  mother's  petticoat  produced  by  the  way  she  always 


305  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

wore  it.  It  seems  curious  that  neither  Helen  nor  her  mother 
appeared  to  be  aware  of  the  visit.  Neither  of  them,  at  any  rate, 
ever  spoke  of  having  seen  the  other,  nor  even  of  having  dreamt 
of  having  done  so. 

"F.  A.  POLE-CAREW." 

[Frances  Reddell  states  that  she  has  never  had  any  hallucin- 
ation, or  any  odd  experience  of  any  kind,  except  on  this  one 
occasion.  The  Hon.  Mrs.  Lyttelton,  of  Selwyn  College, 
Cambridge,  who  knows  her,  tells  us  that  "she  appears  to  be  a 
most  matter-of-fact  person,  and  was  apparently  most  impressed 
by  the  fact  that  she  saw  a  hole  in  the  mother's  flannel  petticoat, 
made  by  the  busk  of  her  stays,  reproduced  in  the  apparition."] 

The  simplest  explanation  of  this  incident,  and  that 
which  involves  the  least  departure  from  known  forms 
of  telepathy,  is  that  the  figure  seen  by  Frances  Redclell 
was  due  to  thought-transference  from  the  mind  of  the 
dying  girl.  And  this  explanation  has  some  direct 
evidence  in  its  favour.  There  is,  of  course,  abundant 
proof  of  the  transference  from  agent  to  percipient  of 
a  real  or  imaginary  scene.  (See  the  cases  described 
in  Chapters  II.,  III.,  XIV.,  and  XV.)  But  in  these 
cases  the  percipient's  impressions  appear  rarely  to 
have  risen  to  the  level  of  hallucination,  and  in  the 
absence  of  direct  evidence  it  would  not  perhaps  have 
been  safe  to  assume  that  a  detailed  impression,  such 
as  a  scene  or  a  human  figure,  transferred  from 
another  mind,  would  be  capable  of  taking  complete 
sensory  embodiment  in  the  mind  of  the  percipient. 
The  frequency,  however,  of  collective  hallucinations 
of  an  apparently  casual  character  seems  to  require 
such  an  assumption  (see  ante,  p.  273).  Moreover, 
a  case  has  been  recorded  (Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol. 
vi.  pp.  434,  435)  in  which  a  hypnotically  induced 
hallucination  appears  to  have  been  reproduced  in 
another  hypnotised  subject  by  telepathic  suggestion 
from  the  original  percipient.  In  the  experiments 
recorded  by  Dr.  Gibotteau  (pp.  368,  369)  the  ideas 
mentally  suggested  by  him  appear  in  some  cases  to 
have  assumed  a  hallucinatory  form  in  the  subject ; 
and,  finally,  Wesermann  (Chapter  X.,p.  233),in  his  fifth 


LESS  COMMON   TYPES  OF  HALLUCINATION.   309 

experiment  succeeded  in  calling  up  a  recognisable 
hallucination  of  a  lady  personally  unknown  to  the 
percipients.  We  have,  therefore,  experimental  parallels 
for  our  suggested  interpretation  of  Frances  Reddell's 
experience  ;  and  when  once  the  possibility  of  thought- 
transference  in  this  form  is  recognised,  many  so-called 
"  ghosts  "  or  phantasms  of  the  dead  find  a  simple  and 
satisfactory  explanation.  The  following  case  may  be 
instanced  :  — 

No.  92.—  From  MR.  JOHN  E.  HUSBANDS,  Melbourne 
House,  Town  Hall  Square,  Grimsby. 


"September  i$th,  1886. 

"  The  facts  are  simply  these.  I  was  sleeping-  in  a  hotel  in 
Madeira  in  January  1885.  It  was  a  bright  moonlight  night. 
The  windows  were  open  and  the  blinds  up.  I  felt  some  one  was 
in  my  room.  On  opening  my  eyes,  I  saw  a  young  fellow  about 
twenty-five,  dressed  in  flannels,  standing  at  the  side  of  my  bed 
and  pointing  with  the  first  finger  of  his  right  hand  to  the  place  I 
was  lying  in.  I  lay  for  some  seconds  to  convince  myself  of  some 
one  being  really  there.  I  then  sat  up  and  looked  at  him.  I 
saw  his  features  so  plainly  that  I  recognised  them  in  a  photo- 
graph which  was  shown  me  some  days  after.  I  asked  him  what 
he  wanted  ;  he  did  not  speak,  but  his  eyes  and  hand  seemed  to 
tell  me  I  was  in  his  place.  As  he  did  not  answer,  I  struck  out 
at  him  with  my  fist  as  I  sat  up,  but  did  not  reach  him,  and  as 
I  was  going  to  spring  out  of  bed  he  slowly  vanished  through 
the  door,  which  was  shut,  keeping  his  eyes  upon  me  all  the 
time. 

"  Upon  inquiry  I  found  that  the  young  fellow  who  appeared 
to  me  died  in  that  room  I  was  occupying. 

"  If  I  can  tell  you  anything  more  I  shall  be  glad  to,  if  it 
interests  you. 

"JOHN  E.  HUSBANDS." 

The  following  letters  are  from  Miss  Falkner,  of 
Church  Terrace,  Wisbech,  who  was  resident  at  the 
hotel  when  the  above  incident  happened  :  — 

"OctoberWi,  1886. 

"  The  figure  that  Mr.  Husbands  saw  while  in  Madeira  was 
that  of  a  young  fellow  who  died  unexpectedly  months  previously, 
in  the  room  which  Mr.  Husbands  was  occupying.  Curiously 
enough,  Mr.  H.  had  never  heard  of  him  or  his  death.  He  told 


310  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

me  the  story  the  morning  after  he  had  seen  the  figure,  and 
I  recognised  the  young  fellow  from  the  description.  It 
impressed  me  very  much,  but  I  did  not  mention  it  to  him  or 
any  one.  I  loitered  about  until  I  heard  Mr.  Husbands  tell  the 
same  tale  to  my  brother ;  we  left  Mr.  H.  and  said  simul- 
taneously, *  He  has  seen  Mr.  D.' 

"  No  more  was  said  on  the  subject  for  days;  then  I  abruptly 
showed  the  photograph. 

"  Mr.  Husbands  said  at  once,  'This  is  the  young  fellow  who 
appeared  to  me  the  other  night,  but  he  was  dressed  differently' 
—describing  a  dress  he  often  wore— 'cricket  suit  (or  tennis) 
fastened  at  the  neck  with  sailor  knot.'  I  must  say  that  Mr. 
Husbands  is  a  most  practical  man,  and  the  very  last  one  would 
expect  'a  spirit'  to  visit. 

"K.  FALKNER." 

" October  2ot/t,  1886. 

"  I  enclose  you  photograph  and  an  extract  from  my  sister-in- 
law's  letter,  which  I  received  this  morning,  as  it  will  verify  my 
statement.  Mr.  Husbands  saw  the  figure  either  the  3rd  or  4th 
of  February  1885. 

"  The  people  who  had  occupied  the  rooms  had  never  told  us 
if  they  had  seen  anything,  so  we  may  conclude  they  had  not. 

"K.  FALKNER." 

The  following  is  Miss  Falkner's  copy  of  the  passage 
in  the  letter: — 

"  You  will  see  at  back  of  Mr.  du  F 's  photo  the  date  of 

his  decease  [January  2c;th,  1884];  and  if  you  recollect  'the 
Motta  Marques'  had  his  rooms  from  the  February  till  the  May 
or  June  of  1884,  then  Major  Money  at  the  commencement  of 
1885  season.  Mr.  Husbands  had  to  take  the  room  on  February 
2nd,  1 885,  as  his  was  wanted. 

"  I  am  clear  on  all  this,  and  remember  his  telling  me  the 
incident  when  he  came  to  see  my  baby." 

At  a  personal  interview  Mr.  Gurney  learnt  that  Mr. 
Husbands  had  never  had  any  other  hallucination  of 
the  senses.  (Proc.  S.P.R.yvo\.  v.  p.  416.) 

It  is,  of  course,  conceivable  that  before  his  experi- 
ence Mr.  Husbands  may  have  heard  of  the  death  of 
Mr.  D.  and  have  forgotten  the  circumstance.  But 
this  supposition  will  hardly  account  for  the  recogni- 
tion of  the  photograph.  In  any  c,«ase,  however,  there 


LESS  COMMON   TYPES   OF   HALLUCINATION.    31! 

can  be  no  justification  for  invoking  other  than 
terrestrial  agencies  to  explain  the  vision.  Until  such 
agencies  are  proved  inadequate  to  account  for  the 
facts  a  narrative  of  this  kind  can  scarcely  be  held  to 
raise  a  presumption,  much  less  to  afford  a  proof,  of 
the  action  of  the  dead.  Miss  Falkner  and  her  brother 
had  known  the  dead  man;  no  fact  about  him  was 
communicated  which  was  not  within  their  knowledge; 
and  there  is  nothing  to  negative  the  supposition  that 
some  echo  of  their  thoughts  or  dreams  may  have 
given  rise  to  the  vision.  A  very  similar  case  is 
quoted  in  the  same  volume  (Proc^  vol.  v.  p.  418). 
Mr.  D.  M.  Tyre,  of  St.  Andrews  Road,  Pollokshields, 
Glasgow,  stayed  for  some  time  in  a  lonely  house  in 
Dumbartonshire.  On  several  occasions  during  their 
occupancy  of  the  house  Miss  L.  Tyre  saw  the  figure 
of  an  old  woman  lying  on  the  bed  in  the  kitchen. 
The  figure  lay  with  the  face  turned  to  the  wall,  and 
the  legs  drawn  up  as  if  from  cold.  On  her  head 
was  a  "sow-backed  mutch,"  i.e.,  a  white  frilled  cap 
of  a  peculiar  shape  common  in  the  Highlands.  The 
others  who  were  present  did  not  see  the  figure.  It 
was  subsequently  ascertained  from  a  neighbour  that 
the  description  given  correctly  represented  the  dress 
and  attitude  of  a  former  occupant  of  the  house,  who 
had  died  there  some  years  before  under  painful  cir- 
cumstances. M.  Richet  (Proc.,  vol.  v.  p.  148)  gives  an 
account  of  some  spiritualist  stances  at  which  the 
promise  was  given  that  his  grandfather,  M.  Charles 
Renouard,  would  appear.  A  figure  resembling  M. 
Charles  Renouard  was  actually  seen  some  days  later, 
not  by  any  of  those  present  at  the  sdance,  but  by  an 
English  lady  staying  in  the  house,  who  was  believed 
to  know  nothing  of  the  expected  apparition. 

A  similar  explanation  may  perhaps  apply  to  the 
following  account,  which  was  communicated  verbally 
to  Mr.  Myers  on  the  1 2th  October  1888  by  the 
percipient,  Mr.  J.,  a  gentleman  well  known  in  the 
scientific  world.  Mr.  Myers  explains  that  the  account 


312  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

which  follows  was  written  out  by  him  from  his  notes 
of  the  conversation,  and  was  subsequently  revised  and 
corrected  by  Mr.  J.  himself. 

No.  93. — From  MR,  J. 

"  In  1880  I  succeeded  a  Mr.  Q.  as  librarian  of  the  X.  Library. 
I  had  never  seen  Mr.  Q.,  nor  any  photograph  or  likeness  of 
him,  when  the  following  incidents  occurred.  I  may,  of  course, 
have  heard  the  library  assistants  describe  his  appearance, 
though  I  have  no  recollection  of  this.  I  was  sitting  alone  in 
the  library  one  evening  late  in  March  1884,  finibhing  some 
work  after  hours,  when  it  suddenly  occurred  to  me  that  I  should 
miss  the  last  train  to  H.,  where  I  was  then  living,  if  I  did  not 
make  haste.  It  was  then  10.55,  and  the  last  train  left  X.  at 
11.5.  I  gathered  up  some  books  in  one  hand,  took  the  lamp  in 
the  other,  and  prepared  to  leave  the  librarian's  room,  which 
communicated  by  a  passage  with  the  main  room  of  the  library. 
As  my  lamp  illumined  this  passage,  I  saw  apparently  at  the 
further  end  of  it  a  man's  face.  I  instantly  thought  a  thief  had 
got  into  the  library.  This  was  by  no  means  impossible,  and 
the  probability  of  it  had  occurred  to  me  before.  I  turned  back 
into  my  room,  put  down  the  books,  and  took  a  revolver  from 
the  safe,  and,  holding  the  lamp  cautiously  behind  me,  I  made 
my  way  along  the  passage — which  had  a  corner,  behind  which 
I  thought  my  thief  might  be  lying  in  wait — into  the  main  room. 
Here  I  saw  no  one,  but  the  room  was  large  and  encumbered 
with  bookcases.  I  called  out  loudly  to  the  intruder  to  show 
himself  several  times,  more  with  the  hope  of  attracting  a  passing 
policeman  than  of  drawing  the  intruder.  Then  I  saw  a  face 
looking  round  one  of  the  bookcases.  I  say  looking  round^  but 
it  had  an  odd  appearance  as  if  the  body  were  in  the  bookcase, 
as  the  face  came  so  closely  to  the  edge  and  I  could  see  no  body. 
The  face  was  pallid  and  hairless,  and  the  orbits  of  the  eyes 
were  very  deep.  I  advanced  towards  it,  and  as  I  did  so  I  saw 
an  old  man  with  high  shoulders  seem  to  rotate  out  of  the  end  of 
the  bookcase,  and  with  his  back  towards  me  and  with  a  shuffling 
gait  walk  rather  quickly  from  the  bookcase  to  the  door  of  a 
small  lavatory,  which  openedJrom  the  library  and  had  no  other 
access.  I  heard  no  noise.  I  followed  the  man  at  once  into  the 
lavatory ;  and  to  my  extreme  surprise  found  no  one  there.  I 
examined  the  window  (about  14  in.  x  12  in.),  and  found  it  closed 
and  fastened.  I  opened  it  and  looked  out.  It  opened  into  a 
well,  the  bottom  of  which,  10  feet  below,  was  a  sky-light,  and  the 
top  open  to  the  sky  some  20  feet  above.  It  was  in  the  middle 
of  the  building,  and  no  one  could  have  dropped  into  it  without 
smashing  the  glass  nor  climbed  out  of  it  without  a  ladder — but 


LESS  COMMON   TYPES  OF  HALLUCINATION.    313 

no  one  was  there.  Nor  had  there  been  anything  like  time  for 
a  man  to  get  out  of  the  window,  as  I  followed  the  intruder 
instantly.  Completely  mystified,  I  even  looked  into  the  little 
cupboard  under  the  fixed  basin.  There  was  nowhere  hiding  for 
a  child,  and  I  confess  I  began  to  experience  for  the  first  time 
what  novelists  describe  as  an  '  eerie5  feeling. 

"  I  left  the  library,  and  found  I  had  missed  my  train. 

"Next  morning  I  mentioned  what  I  had  seen  to  a  local 
clergyman,  who,  on  hearing  my  description,  said,  *  Why,  that's 
old  Q. ! '  Soon  after  I  saw  a  photograph  (from  a  drawing)  of 
Q.,  and  the  resemblance  was  certainly  striking.  Q.  had  lost  all 
his  hair,  eyebrows  and  all,  from  (I  believe)  a  gunpowder  acci- 
dent. His  walk  was  a  peculiar,  rapid,  high-shouldered  shuffle. 

"  Later  inquiry  proved  he  had  died  at  about  the  time  of  year 
at  which  I  saw  the  figure."  (Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  vi.  p.  57.) 

Mr.  J.  states  that  he  has  seen  but  one  other 
hallucination,  a  figure  representing  his  mother,  which 
appeared  to  him  at  the  time  of  the  birth  of  one  of  his 
sisters. 

A  hallucination  of  another  kind  was  seen  independ- 
ently in  the  same  library  by  Mr.  R.,  the  principal 
assistant,  and  a  clerk,  Mr,  P.  Mr.  R.  writes  in 
1889: — 

"A  few  years  ago   I  was  engaged  in  a  large  building  in 

the ,  and  during  the  busy  times  was  often  there  till  late  in 

the  evening.  On  one  particular  night  I  was  at  work  along  with 
a  junior  clerk  till  about  n  P.M.,  in  the  room  marked  A  on  the 
annexed  sketch.  All  the  lights  in  the  place  had  been  out  for 
hours  except  those  in  the  room  which  we  occupied.  Before 
leaving,  we  turned  out  the  gas.  We  then  looked  into  the  fire- 
place, but  not  a  spark  was  to  be  seen.  The  night  was  very 
dark,  but  being  thoroughly  accustomed  to  the  place  we  carried 
no  light.  On  reaching  the  bottom  of  the  staircase  (B),  I 
happened  to  look  up ;  when,  to  my  surprise,  the  room  which  we 
had  just  left  appeared  to  be  lighted.  I  turned  to  my  companion 
and  pointed  out  the  light,  and  sent  him  back  to  see  what  was 
wrong.  He  went  at  once  and  I  stood  looking  through  the  open 
door,  but  I  was  not  a  little  astonished  to  see  that  as  soon  as  he 
got  within  a  few  yards  of  the  room  the  light  went  put  quite 
suddenly.  My  companion,  from  the  position  he  was  in  at  the 
moment,  could  not  see  the  light  go  out,  but  on  his  reaching  the 
door  everything  was  in  total  darkness.  He  entered,  however, 
and  when  he  returned,  reported  that  both  gas  and  fire  were 
completely  out.  The  light  in  the  daytime  was  got  by  means  of 
a  glass  roof,  there  being  no  windows  on  the  sides  of  the  room, 


314  APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

and  the  night  in  question  was  so  dark  that  the  moon  shining 
through  the  roof  was  out  of  the  question.  Although  I  have 
often  been  in  the  same  room  till  long  after  dark,  both  before 
and  since,  I  have  never  seen  anything  unusual  at  any  other 
time." 

Mr.  P.  endorses  this  : — 
"  I  confirm  the  foregoing  statement." 

In  subsequent  letters  Mr.  R.  says  : — 

"The  bare  facts  are  as  stated,  being  neither  more  nor  less 
than  what  took  place.  I  have  never  on  any  other  occasion  had 
any  hallucination  of  the  senses,  and  I  think  you  will  find  the 
same  to  be  the  case  with  Mr.  P." 

This  incident  took  place  after  Mr.  J.'s  vision,  but  Mr. 
J.  had  mentioned  his  own  experience  only  to  his  wife 
and  one  other  friend,  and  no  hint  of  it  appears  to  have 
reached  the  assistants  in  the  library,  so  that  the  two 
visions  would  appear  to  have  been  independent. 

To  extend  the  theory  of  thought-transference  from 
living  minds  to  cover  a  case  such  as  that  just  quoted 
may  seem  to  some  extravagant  But  if  there  is  any- 
thing beyond  chance  in  the  occurrence — and  it  would 
be  a  very  remarkable  coincidence  that  three  persons 
should  independently  be  the  subject  of  hallucination 
in  the  same  house,  and  that  one  of  the  hallucinations 
should  resemble  a  former  occupant  of  the  house, 
unknown  to  the  percipient — some  explanation  is  re- 
quired, and  an  explanation  which  involves  no  novel 
or  unproved  agency  is,  ceteris paribus,  to  be  preferred. 
As  regards  the  apparently  local  character  of  the 
visitation,  Mr.  Gurney  has  suggested,  with  regard  to 
some  cases  quoted  in  Phantasms  of  the  Living -(vol.  ii. 
pp.  267-269),  where  the  link  between  agent  and  per- 
cipient appears  to  have  been  of  a  local  and  not  of 
a  personal  character,  that  a  similarity  of  immediate 
mental  content  between  the  percipient  and  agent 
may  have  been  the  condition  of  the  telepathic  action. 
In  the  ordinary  case  of  an  apparition,  e.g.,  of  a  dying 
mother  to  her  son,  the  condition  ot  the  appearance  to 


LESS   COMMON   TYPES  OF   HALLUCINATION.    315 

that  particular  percipient  rather  than  to  the  man  in 
the  street  should  on  this  hypothesis  be  sought  in  the 
community  of  intellectual  and  emotional  experiences 
which  may  be  presumed  to  exist  between  near 
relatives  who  have  passed  a  large  part  of  their  lives 
in  the  same  environment.  In  the  cases  now  under 
consideration  the  substitute  for  such  far-reaching 
community  is  to  be  found  in  the  transitory  occupa- 
tion of  both  percipient  and  agent — the  one  in  present 
sensation,  the  other  in  memory — with  the  same  scene. 
Such  partial  community  of  perception,  by  a  kind 
of  extended  association  of  ideas,  tends  under  the 
hypothesis  towards  more  complete  community,  and 
the  agent  thus  imports  into  the  sensorium  of  the 
percipient  the  image  of  his  own  or  some  other's 
presence  in  the  scene  which  forms  part  of  the  present 
content  of  both  minds.  On  this  view  Mr.  J.  saw  the 
figure  of  Mr.  Q.  in  the  library,  because  some  friend 
of  Mr.  Q.'s  was  at  that  moment  vividly  picturing  to 
himself  the  late  librarian  in  his  old  haunts. 

Cases,  such  as  the  three  last  quoted,  of  the  solitary 
appearance  of  a  phantasmal  figure,  subsequently 
identified  by  description,  photograph,  or — as  in 
Frances  Reddell's  case — actual  encounter  with  the 
original,  arc  rare;  and  experience  shows  how  easy  it 
may  be  for  the  somewhat  vague  image  preserved 
in  the  memory  to  take  on  definite  form  and  colour 
during  the  process,  occasionally  prolonged,  of 
"recognition."  The  type  cannot,  therefore,  be 
regarded  as  well  established.  As,  however,  such 
narratives  have  in  some  instances  been  regarded  as 
affording  evidence  of  the  action  of  disembodied 
spirits,  it  seemed  well  to  suggest  that,  if  the  facts  are 
accepted,  they  are  susceptible  of  another  interpreta- 
tion. 

Haunted  Houses. 

But  there  are  numerous  cases  to  which  the  hypo- 
thesis of  telepathic  infection  may  be  applied  with 


3 16  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

perhaps  less  hesitation.  The  form  which  so-called 
"ghost  stories"  most  commonly  assume  is  the 
appearance  of  an  unrecognised  phantasmal  figure. 
When  the  appearance  is  to  one  person  only,  or  when, 
in  the  intervals  of  its  appearance  to  others,  the  matter 
has  been  freely  discussed  amongst  the  members  of 
the  household,  and  the  details  of  the  figure  described, 
we  should  probably  be  justified,  on  the  analogy  of 
hypnotic  and  epidemic  religious  hallucinations,  in  re- 
garding the  original  appearance  as  purely  subjective 
and  the  later  ones  as  due  to  verbal  suggestion  and 
expectancy.  But  there  are  cases  where,  from  the 
definite  statements  of  the  witnesses  and  the  surround- 
ing circumstances,  it  appears  at  all  events  extremely 
improbable  that  any  mention  was  made  of  the 
original  hallucination.  In  such  cases  it  seems  per- 
missible to  conjecture  that  the  later  apparitions,  or 
some  of  them,  may  have  been  due  to  telepathic 
suggestion  from  the  original  percipient,  to  whom  his 
solitary  experience  would  naturally  be  a  subject  of 
frequent  and  vivid  reflection. 

I  received  the  following  account  from  the  ladies 
concerned  after  a  personal  interview  with  one  of 
them  on  February  2;th,  1889,  'm  tne  course  of 
which  I  examined  the  scene  of  the  apparition,  the 
landing  of  a  moderate-sized  London  house.  The 
landing,  though  narrow,  is  well  lighted,  and  it  seems 
impossible  that  the  appearance  could  have  been  a 
real  person.  The  first  experience,  it  will  be  seen, 
is  a  collective  hallucination,  of  a  type  discussed  in 
the  preceding  chapter. 

No.  94.— From  MRS.  KNOTT. 

"  LONDON,  S.W., 

March  $//*,   1889. 

"The  incident  I  relate  occurred  at  this  address  early  in  Febru- 
ary 1889.  I  have  lived  in  this  house  foii£  years,  and  constantly 
felt  another  presence  was  in  the  drawing-room  besides  myself, 


LESS  COMMON   TYPES  OF   HALLUCINATION.   317 

but  never  saw  any  form  until  last  month.  My  cousin  Mrs.  R. 
and  myself  returned  from  a  walk  at  1.30  P.M.  The  front  door 
was  opened  for  us  by  my  housekeeper,  Mrs.  E.  I  passed  up- 
stairs before  my  cousin,  and  on  turning  to  my  bedroom,  the  door 
of  which  is  beside  the  drawing-room  door  [*'.*.,  at  right  angles  to 
it],  I  saw,  as  I  thought,  Mrs.  E.  go  into  the  drawing-room.  I 
put  a  parcel  into  my  room  and  then  followed  her  to  give  some 
order,  and  found  the  room  empty  !  My  cousin  was  going  up 
the  second  flight  of  staiis  to  her  room,  and  I  called  out,  '  Did 
you  open  the  drawing-room  door  as  you  passed?'  'No,'  she 
replied, '  Mrs.  E.  has  gone  in.'  Mrs.  R.  had  seen  the  figure  more 
distinctly  than  I ;  it  seemed  to  pass  her  at  the  top  of  the  stairs, 
and  she  thought,  l  How  quietly  Mrs.  E.  moves!  *I  inquired  of 
Mrs.  E.  what  she  did  after  opening  the  door  for  us,  and  she 
said,  4  Went  to  the  kitchen  to  hasten  luncheon,  as  you  were  in  a 
hurry  for  it.'  The  day  was  bright,  and  there  is  nothing  on  the 
stairs  that  could  cast  a  shadow.  I  quite  hope  some  day  I  may 
see  the  face  of  the  figure." 


From  MRS.  R.,  Malpas,  Cheshire. 

"March  ist,  1889. 

"  In  answer  to  your  letter  on  the  subject  of  the  figure  seen 
at  C.  Terrace,  Mrs.  K.  and  I  had  just  come  in  at  about  half-past 
one  o'clock.  Mrs.  E.  (the  housekeeper)  had  opened  the  door. 
We  went  upstairs,  and  on  the  first  landing  are  two  rooms,  one 
the  drawing-room,  the  other  Mrs.  K.'s  bedroom.  She  went  into 
her  room  while  I  stood  a  minute  or  two  talking  to  her.  Just  as 
I  turned  to  go  up  the  next  flight  of  stairs  I  thought  I  saw  Mrs. 
E.  pass  me  quickly  and  go  into  the  drawing-room.  Beyond 
seeing  a  slight  figure  in  a  dark  dress  I  saw  nothing  more,  for 
I  did  not  look  at  it,  but  just  saw  it  pass  me.  Before  I 
got  upstairs  Mrs.  K.  called  out,  '  Did  you  leave  the  drawing- 
room  door  open  ? '  I  answered,  '  I  did  not  go  in  ;  I  saw  Mrs. 
E.  go  in^  Mrs.  K.  answered,  *  There  is  nobody  there.'  We 
asked  Mrs.  E.  if  she  had  been  up ;  she,  on  the  contrary,  had 
gone  straight  down.  Also,  as  she  said,  she  would  not  have 
passed  me  on  the  landing,  but  have  waited  until  I  had  gone 
upstairs ;  and  as  it  struck  me  afterwards,  she  could  not  have 
passed  me  on  such  a  small  landing  without  touching  me,  but 
I  never  noticed  that  at  the  time.  I  do  not  know  if  a  thought 
ever  embodies  itself,  but  my  idea  was,  and  is,  that  as  Mrs.  E. 
ran  downstairs  her  thought  went  up,  wondering  if  the  drawing- 
room  fire  was  burning  brightly.  The  figure  I  saw  went  into  the 
room  as  if  it  had  a  purpose  of  some  sort.  I  have  never  seen 
anything  of  the  sort  before." 


3  1 8  APPARITIONS  AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

In  a  later  letter  Mrs.  R.  adds : — 

"  March  loth,  1889. 

"  I  am  afraid  I  cannot  give  any  very  definite  reply  to  your 
questions. 

"(i)  *  Had  I  any  idea  of  the  house  being  haunted?'  No;  and 
I  do  not  think  it  is  supposed  to  be  haunted.  Mrs.  K.  has  said 
that  at  times  it  has  seemed  to  her  as  if  there  was  some  one  else 
in  the  room  beside  herself,  but  I  think  that  is  a  feeling  that  has 
come  to  most  people  some  time  or  other. 

"(2)  'Did  we  see  it  simultaneously?'  That  I  cannot  exactly 
say,  but  I  should  think  yes,  for  we  neither  of  us  said  anything 
until  Mrs.  K.  called  out  to  me  to  know  if  I  had  been  in  the 
drawing-room," 

In  commenting  on  the  story  in  November  1889 
(Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  vi.  p.  250),  I  wrote,  "  Here  we  may 
almost  see  the  story  of  a  haunted  house  in  the  mak- 
ing. The  essential  elements  are  there.  We  have  the 
visionary  figure  seen  by  two  persons  at  once,  and  the 
mysterious  feeling  of  an  alien  presence  in  the  room. 
It  is  quite  possible  that  the  latter  circumstance  would 
have  passed  unrecorded,  and  even  unnoticed,  but  for 
the  subsequent  phantasm,  through  which  it  gained  a 
retrospective  importance."  My  comments  have  met 
with  unexpected  justification.  On  April  7th,  1893, 
Mrs.  Knott  again  wrote  to  me  as  follows  : — 

"On  Saturday,  the  iSth  March,  at  1.50  P.M.,  Mrs.  H.  and  I 
were  going  upstairs  to  the  drawing-room,  she  first,  I  following 
with  some  flowers,  not  looking  up.  I  heard  her  say,  '  Mrs.  E., 
don't  go  down  until  you  have  seen  my  screen.'  (Mrs.  H.  had 
just  finished  painting  one.)  I  said,  '  Mrs.  E.  isn't  here.'  Mrs. 
H.  replied,  'Yes,  she  is  in  the  drawing-room.'  Then  I  heard 
her  say,  *  Where  has  the  woman  gone  ? J  for  no  one  was  visible 
in  the  room,  and  Mrs.  H.  said  she  distinctly  saw  a  figure  go  in, 
and  felt  sure  it  was  Mrs.  E.  This  is  exactly  the  same  impres- 
sion that  Mrs.  R.  and  I  had  when  we  each  saw  the  figure  go 
into  the  drawing-room  four  years  ago,  in  February,  and  it  was 
about  the  same  hour  of  the  day." 

In  a  later  letter  Mrs.  Knott  explains  that  Mrs.  H. 
had  heard  of  the  earlier  apparition  on  the  same  spot, 
but  adds  that  the  story  "  most  certainly  did  not  stay 


LESS   COMMON   TYPES   OF   HALLUCINATION.    319 

in  her  mind."  We  shall  probably  be  justified  in 
assuming,  however,  that  Mrs.  H/s  hallucinatory  ex- 
perience was  due  to  a  subconscious  reminiscence  of 
her  friend's  ghost-story. 

In  the  case  which  follows,  however,  there  is  strong 
evidence  that  the  phantasms  were  seen  independently 
by  each  percipient.  The  narrators  are  unwilling  that 
their  names  or  that  of  the  house  should  appear.  Mr. 
Gurney,  however,  fully  discussed  the  circumstances 
with  them  at  a  personal  interview. 


No.  95. — From  MRS.  W. 

"February  IQ///,  1885. 
"  In  June  1 88 1  we  went  to  live  in  a  detached  villa  just  out  of 

the  town  of  C .     Our  household  consisted  of  my  husband 

and  myself,  my  step-daughter,  and  two  little  boys,  aged  nine 
and  six,  and  two  female  servants.  The  house  was  between  ten 
and  twenty  years  old.  We  had  been  there  about  three  weeks, 

SKETCH  PLAN  OF  THE  GROUND-FLOOR  OF  THE  HOUSE. 


Dining-room 

Kitchen 

Front 
I  C    Drawing-room 


t __! 

A 

Hack 
Drau  mg  room 


A  Piano.        B  First  position  of  figure.        C  Second  position  of  figure. 

D  Garden  door.          E  Baize  door.  F  Front  door  and  porch. 

G  Front  gate. 


when,  about  n  o'clock-one  morning,  as  I  was  playing  the  piano 
in  the  drawing-room,  I  had  the  following  experience: — I  was 


32O  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

suddenly  aware  of  a  figure  peeping  round  the  corner  of  the 
folding-doors  to  my  left;  thinking  it  must  be  a  visitor,  I  jumped 
up  and  went  into  the  passage,  but  no  one  was  there,  and  the 
hall  door,  which  was  half  glass,  was  shut.  I  only  saw  the 
upper  half  of  the  figure,  which  was  that  of  a  tall  man,  with 
a  very  pale  face  and  dark  hair  and  moustache.  The  impression 
lasted  only  a  second  or  two,  but  I  saw  the  face  so  distinctly  that 
to  this  day  I  should  recognise  it  if  I  met  it  in  a  crowd.  It  had 
a  sorrowful  expression.  It  was  impossible  for  any  one  to  come 
into  the  house  without  being  seen  or  heard.  I  was  startled, 
but  not  the  least  frightened.  I  had  heard  no  report  what- 
ever as  to  the  house  being  haunted ;  and  am  certainly  not 
given  to  superstitious  fancies.  I  did  not  mention  my  ex- 
perience to  any  one  at  the  time,  and  formed  no  theory  about 
it.  In  the  following  August,  one  evening  about  8.30,  I  had 
occasion  to  go  into  the  drawing-room  to  get  something  out 
of  the  cupboard,  when,  on  turning  round,  I  saw  the  same  face 
in  the  bay-window,  in  front  of  the  shutters,  which  were  closed. 
I  again  saw  only  the  upper  part  of  the  figure,  which  seemed  to 
be  in  a  somewhat  crouching  posture.  The  light  on  this  occasion 
came  from  the  hall  and  the  dining-room,  and  did  not  shine 
directly  on  the  window;  but  I  was  able  perfectly  to  distinguish 
the  face  and  the  expression  of  the  eyes.  This  time  I  was 
frightened,  and  mentioned  the  matter  to  my  husband  the  same 
evening.  I  then  also  told  him  of  my  first  experience.  On  each 
of  these  occasions  I  was  from  8  to  10  feet  distant  from  the 
figure. 

"  Later  in  the  same  month  I  was  playing  cricket  in  the  garden 
with  my  little  boys.  From  my  position  at  the  wickets  I  could 
see  right  into  the  house  through  an  open  door,  down  a  passage, 
and  through  the  hall  as  far  as  the  front  door.  The  kitchen 
door  opened  into  the  passage.  I  distinctly  saw  the  same  face 
peeping  round  at  me  out  of  the  kitchen  door.  I  again  only  saw 
the  upper  half  of  the  figure.  I  threw  down  the  bat  and  ran  in. 
No  one  was  in  the  kitchen.  One  servant  was  out,  and  I  found 
that  the  other  was  up  in  her  bedroom.  I  mentioned  this 
incident  at  once  to  my  husband,  who  also  examined  the  kitchen 
without  any  result. 

"  A  little  later  in  the  year,  about  8  o'clock  one  evening,  I  was 
coming  downstairs  alone,  when  I  heard  a  voice  from  the 
direction,  apparently,  of  my  little  boys'  bedroom,  the  door  of 
which  was  open.  It  distinctly  said,  in  a  deep  sorrowful  tone, 
*  I  can't  find  it.'  I  called  out  to  my  little  boys,  but  they  did 
not  reply,  and  I  have  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  they  were 
asleep ;  they  always  called  out  if  they  heard  me  upstairs.  My 
step-daughter,  who  was  downstairs  in  the  dining-room  with  the 
door  open,  also  heard  the  voice,  and  thiriking  it  was  me  calling, 
cried  out,  'What  are  you  looking  for?'  We  were  extremely 


LESS  COMMON   TYPES  OF   HALLUCINATION.    $21 

\  / 

puzzled.  The  voice  could  not  by  any  possibility  have  belonged 
to  any  member  of  the  household.  The  servants  were  in  the 
kitchen,  and  my  husband  was  out. 

"A  short  time  after  I  was  again  coming  downstairs  after 
dark  in  the  evening  when  I  felt  a  sharp  slap  on  the  back.  It 
startled  but  did  not  hurt  me.  There  was  no  one  near  me, 
and  I  ran  downstairs  and  told  my  husband  and  my  step- 
daughter. 

"  I  have  never  in  my  life,  on  any  other  occasion,  had  any 
hallucination  of  sight,  hearing,  or  touch." 


The  following  is  Miss  W.'s  account : — 

"February  IQ/^,  1885. 

"  In  July,  1881,  I  was  sitting  playing  the  piano  in  our  house 

in  C ,  about  11.30  in  the  morning,  when  I  saw  the  head  and 

shoulders  of  a  man  peeping  round  the  folding-doors,  in  just 
the  same  way  as  they  had  appeared  to  my  mother,  but  I  had 
not  at  that  time  heard  of  her  experience.  I  jumped  up,  and 
advanced,  thinking  it  was  an  acquaintance  from  a  few  yards  off. 
This  impression,  however,  only  lasted  for  a  second ;  the  face 
disappeared,  but  recalling  it,  I  perceived  at  once  that  it  was 
certainly  not  that  of  the  gentleman  whom  I  had  for  a  second 
thought  of.  The  resemblance  was  only  that  they  were  both 
dark.  The  face  was  pale  and  melancholy,  and  the  hair  very 
dark.  I  at  once  went  to  Mrs.  W.  in  the  dining-room,  and  asked 
if  anyone  had  called.  She  said,  'No';  and  I  then  told  her 
what  I  had  seen.  I  then  for  the  first  time  heard  from  her  what 
she  had  seen,  and  our  descriptions  completely  agreed.  We  had 
even  both  noticed  that  the  hair  was  parted  in  the  middle,  and 
that  a  good  deal  of  shirt-front  showed. 

"A  few  weeks  later,  about  n  P.M.,  Mrs.  W.  and  I  were  play- 
ing bezique  in  the  dining-room.  Mr.  W.  was  out,  and  the 
servants  had  gone  to  bed.  The  door  of  the  room  was  open,  and 
I  was  facing  it.  I  suddenly  had  an  impression  that  some  one 
was  looking  at  me,  and  I  looked  up.  There  was  the  same  face, 
and  the  upper  half  of  the  figure,  peeping  round  into  the  room 
from  the  hall.  I  said,  'There's  the  man  again  ! '  Mrs.  W. 
rushed  to  the  door,  but  there  was  no  one  in  the  hall  or  passage  ; 
the  front  cloor  was  locked,  and  the  green  baize  door  which  com- 
municated with  the  back  part  of  the  house  was  shut.  The 
figure  had  been  on  the  side  of  the  dining-room  door  nearest  to 
the  front  door,  and  could  not  have  got  to  the  green  baize  door 
without  passing  well  in  our  sight.  We  were  a  good  deal 
frightened,  and  we  mentioned  the  occurrence  to  Mr.  W.  on 
his  return.  He  went  all  over  the  house  as  usual  before  going 

21 


322  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

to  bed,  and  all* windows  were  fastened,  and  everything  in 
order. 

"  A  few  weeks  after  this,  about  1 1.30  A.M.,  I  was  upstairs  play- 
ing battledore  and  shuttlecock  with  my  eldest  brother  in  his  bed- 
room. The  door  was  open.  Stepping  back  in  the  course  of  the 
game,  I  got  out  on  to  the  landing ;  I  looked  sideways  over  my 
shoulder,  in  order  to  strike  the  shuttlecock,  and  suddenly  saw 
the  same  face  as  before,  and  my  brother  called  out  at  the  same 
moment,  '  There's  a  man  on  the  landing.'  I  was  startled  myself, 
but  to  reassure  the  child  I  said  there  was  no  one — that  he  had 
made  a  mistake — and  shut  the  door  and  went  on  with  the  game. 
I  told  my  father  and  Mrs.  W.  of  this  as  soon  as  I  saw  them. 

"  Later  in  the  autumn  I  was  sitting  alone  in  the  dining-room 
one  evening,  with  the  door  open.  Mrs.  W.  had  been  upstairs, 
and  I  heard  her  coming  down.  Suddenly  I  heard  a  deep, 
melancholy  voice  say,  '  I  can't  find  it.'  I  called  out,  '  What  are 
you  looking  for?'  At  the  same  time  the  voice  was  not  the  least 
like  Mrs.  W.'s.  She  then  came  in  and  told  me  she  had  heard 
exactly  the  same  thing.  My  father  was  out  at  the  time,  but  we 
told  him  of  the  circumstance  on  his  return. 

"  In  September  of  1882  I  was  for  a  week  in  the  house  with 
only  the  two  children  and  the  servants.  It  was  about  7.30  on 
Sunday  evening,  and  nearly  dark.  The  others  were  all  out  in 
the  garden.  I  was  standing  at  the  dining-room  window,  when 
I  caught  a  glimpse  of  a  tall  man's  figure  slipping  into  the  porch. 
I  must  have  seen  if  anybody  had  approached  the  porch  by  the 
path  from  the  front  gate,  and  I  should  certainly  have  heard  the 
latch  of  the  gate,  which  used  to  make  a  considerable  noise,  and 
I  should  also  have  heard  footsteps  on  the  gravel-path.  The 
figure  appeared  quite  suddenly;  it  had  on  a  tall  hat.  I  was  very 
much  astonished,  but  ran  to  the  door,  thinking  it  might  possibly 
be  my  father.  No  one  was  there;  I  went  to  the  gate,  and 
looked  up  and  down  the  road.  No  one  was  in  sight,  and  there 
was  no  possibility  that  anybody  could  have  got  so  suddenly  out 
of  view. 

"  I  have  never  at  any  other  time  in  my  life  had  any  hallucina- 
tion whatever,  either  of  sight  or  hearing. 

"  I  remember  Mrs.  W.  telling  me  of  her  experience  of  the 
slap  as  soon  as  she  came  downstairs. 

"  I  ought  to  add  that  at  the  time  when  we  were  negotiating 
about  the  house,  the  landlady  of  the  lodgings  where  my  father 
and  I  were  staying  told  me  that  all  the  villas  of  the  row  in 
which  our  house  was  situated,  ten  in  number,  were  haunted.  I 
was  with  my  father  when  I  heard  this.  Mrs.  W.  was  not  with 
us.  I  am  certain  that  the  remark  made  no  impression  what- 
ever on  me,  and  that  it  did  not  even  recur  to  my  mind  till  I  saw 
what  I  have  described.  I  did  not  everf  mention  the  remark  to 
Mrs.  W." 


LESS  COMMON   TYPES   OF  HALLUCINATION.   323 
Mrs.  W.  adds— 

"  I  distinctly  remember  my  step-daughter  coming  to  me 
immediately  after  her  first  sight  of  the  figure,  and  telling  me 
about  it.  I  then  told  her  for  the  first  time  of  my  own  experi- 
ence (I  had  then  only  had  one),  and  our  descriptions  completely 
tallied.  I  distinctly  remember  our  agreeing  about  the  parting 
of  the  hair  in  the  middle,  and  about  the  amount  of  white  shirt- 
front.  We  could  neither  of  us  remember  whether  his  tie  was 
white  or  black.  We  agreed  that  we  should  know  the  face  if  we 
ever  met  it.  And  subsequently,  at  an  evening  party,  we  both 
pitched  on  the  same  individual  as  more  like  our  strange  visitor 
than  any  one  else  we  knew.  The  resemblance,  however,  was 
not  extremely  close. 

"  I  distinctly  remember,  also,  my  step-daughter  exclaiming, 
*  There's  that  man  again!'  when  we  were  playing  b£zique.  I 
rushed  at  once  into  the  hall  and  found  the  door  closed  as 
she  has  described. 

"  I  also  remember  her  telling  me  at  once  about  what  she  had 
seen,  and  what  her  brother  had  exclaimed  when  they  were 
playing  at  battledore  and  shuttlecock. 

"  She  told  me  about  what  she  had  seen  in  the  porch  when 
Mr.  W.  and  I  returned  from  town  on  the  next  (Monday) 
morning." 

The  following  is  Surgeon-Major  W.'s  confirma- 
tion : — 

"  I  was  told  of  these  various  occurrences  by  my  wife  and 
daughter  at  the  times  which  they  have  specified.  I  only  heard 
from  my  wife  of  her  first  experience  after  she  had  told  me  of 
her  second.  After  she  had  seen  the  figure  during  the  game  of 
cricket,  I  went  into  the  kitchen,  but  found  everything  as  usual. 
On  my  return  home,  after  my  daughter's  seeing  the  figure 
peeping  round  the  dining-room  door,  I  went  all  over  the 
premises  as  my  custom  was,  and  found  windows  secured  and 
everything  in  order. 

"  My  wife  and  daughter  are  as  unlikely  as  any  one  I  know  to 
suffer  from  causeless  frights.  They  are  completely  free  from 
nervousness,  and  though  these  experiences  were  startling  and 
bewildering  to  them,  they  did  not  in  the  least  worry  themselves 
in  consequence. 

"  It  seems  possible  that  the  voice  may  have  been  that  of  one 
of  the  children  talking  in  sleep,  and  the  slap  some  effect  of 
imagination,  but  it  is  not  easy  to  account  for  the  apparitions  by 
any  such  known  causes." 


324  APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

In  this  case  it  seems  unlikely  that  Mrs.  W.,  the 
original  percipient,  was  mistaken  in  supposing  that 
she  had  not  mentioned  her  first  experience,  and  that 
Miss  W.  was  also  mistaken  in  her  statement  that  she 
had  not  heard  of  what  Mrs.  W.  had  seen  until  after 
the  apparition  to  herself.  And  it  is  still  more  unlikely 
that  either  lady  would  have  allowed  any  hint  of  the 
matter  to  reach  the  ears  of  the  children.  Whilst, 
therefore,  in  the  absence  of  contemporary  notes,  or  of 
any  identification  of  the  figure,  the  degree  of  resem- 
blance between  the  apparitions  seen  by  the  two  ladies 
may  have  been  exaggerated,  we  are  still  confronted 
with  the  problem  that  three  persons  living  in  the  same 
house  are  credibly  reported  to  have  seen  independ- 
ently the  hallucinatory  figure  of  a  man,  and  that  in 
the  two  instances  in  which  the  apparitions  were  com- 
pared they  were  found  to  exhibit  certain  resemblances. 
That  the  first  figure  was  a  subjective  hallucination, 
and  that  the  later  apparitions  were  reproductions  of 
that  hallucination  by  means  of  telepathic  suggestion, 
is  a  solution  which  is,  at  any  rate,  worthy  of  considera- 
tion. We  have  in  our  records  many  cases  of  the  kind, 
in  which  hallucinatory  figures,  in  some  cases  pre- 
senting strong  resemblances,  are  alleged  to  have  been 
seen  by  two  or  more  independent  witnesses  in  the 
same  house  or  locality.  Thus  we  have  accounts  from 
Miss  Kathleen  Leigh  Hunt,  Miss  Laurence,  and  Mr. 
Paul  Bird,  of  a  woman's  figure  seen  independently  by 
each  of  them  in  1881  (Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  iii.  pp.  106  et 
seq^).  In  another  case  (Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  vi.  pp.  270  et 
seq^)  a  doctor  in  a  provincial  town,  his  two  daughters, 
and  a  young  lady  visitor  saw  the  figure  of  a  young 
child.  In  other  cases  different  hallucinatory  figures 
have  been  seen  independently  by  successive  occupants 
of  the  same  house,  the  later  percipients  appearing  not 
to  have  heard  of  the  earlier  apparitions.  Thus  we 
have  accounts  of  figures  seen  during  the  period  from 
1861  to  1875  by  three  different  families  in  an  old 
Elizabethan  manor-house  (Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  iii.  p.  1 18); 


LESS  COMMON  TYPES  OF   HALLUCINATION.   325 

and  in  a  quite  modern  house  in  the  South  of  England 
various  phantasmal  figures  were  seen  between  1882 
and  1888  by  two  successive  sets  of  occupants.  (Proc. 
S.P.R.,  vol.  vi.  pp.  256  et  seqy] 

1  Those  desiring  to  study  further  the  evidence  on  this  subject  are 
referred  to  the  paper  on  "  Phantasms  of  the  Dead,"  Proc.  S.P.R., 
vol.  iii.,  by  Mrs.  Henry  Sidgwick,  and  the  papers  on  "Recognised 
Apparitions  occurring  after  Death,"  and  on  "  Phantasms  of  the  Dead," 
by  Messrs.  Gurney,  Myers,  and  the  present  writer  respectively,  in  Proc. 
v.  and  vi.,  and  the  "Record  of  a  Haunted  House,"  in  Proc.  viii.  Many 
cases  of  the  kind  are  also  printed  in  the  monthly  journal  of  the  Society; 
and  there  are  one  or  two  striking  cases  in  the  Annales  dcs  Sciences 
Psychiques, 


326 


CHAPTER  XIV, 

ON   CLAIRVOYANCE   IN   TRANCE. 

THE  word  "  clairvoyance "  was  used  by  the  older 
mesmerists  to  denote  somewhat  heterogeneous  pheno- 
mena. It  was  applied  in  the  first  place  to  a  supposed 
faculty  by  which  the  subject  was  enabled  to  ascertain 
facts  not  within  human  knowledge,1  and  in  the  second 
place  to  a  power  of  discerning  facts  within  the  know- 
ledge of  some  living  mind.  Of  "  clairvoyance  "  in  the 
first  sense  there  is  not  at  present  so  much  evidence  as 
need  cause  hesitation  in  appropriating  the  name  for 
other  uses ;  and  it  is  obvious  that  if  such  a  faculty 
could  be  shown  to  exist,  a  discussion  of  it  would  find 
no  place  in  a  work  which  treats  only  of  the  affec- 
tion of  one  human  mind  by  another.  But  we  have 
abundant  evidence  of  clairvoyance  in  the  second 
sense,  that  is,  of  a  form  of  telepathy  in  which  the 

1  For  instance,  Gregory  and  others  record  that  the  clairvoyant  sub- 
jects of  a  certain  Major  Buckley  were  able  to  read  the  mottoes  enclosed 
in  nuts  (the  equivalent  of  the  modern  Christmas  crackers)  purchased  at 
random  from  a  confectioner's  shop,  and  still  unopened.  The  recent 
evidence  of  the  kind  is  quite  inconsiderable,  and  is  perhaps  hardly 
sufficient  to  allow  of  the  existence  of  a  faculty  of  independent  clairvoy- 
ance being  treated  as  an  open  question.  Experiments  with  Mrs.  Piper 
in  this  direction  have  yielded  negative  results,  and  Professor  Richet's 
trials  with  Madame  B.  (Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  v.  pp.  77  and  149)  are  neither 
sufficiently  numerous  nor  sufficiently  striking  to  justify  any  conclusions 
being  drawn  from  them.  Some  curious  results  have,  however,  been 
obtained  by  M.  J.  Ch.  Roux  (Annales  des  Sciences  Psychiques,  vol.  iii. 
pp.  198  et  seq.}i  and  somewhat  similar  results  have  been  obtained  in  this 
country  by  two  Associates  of  the  S.P.R.  But  it  is  possible  that  all 
these  instances  may  be  susceptible  of  another  explanation.  See,  how- 
ever, Mr.  Myers'  article  on  "  Sensory  Automatism,"  Proc.  S.P.R^  vol. 
viii.  pp.  436  et  seq. 


ON   CLAIRVOYANCE   IN   TRANCE. 

transmitted  idea  seems  to  reach  the  mind  of  the  per- 
cipient no  longer  as  the  meagre  result  of  a  serious 
crisis,  or  of  a  direct  and  often  prolonged  effort  of 
attention  on  the  part  of  the  agent,  but  spontaneously, 
with  great  fulness  of  detail,  and  often  with  remarkable 
ease  and  rapidity,  as  the  outcome  of  a  special  recep- 
tivity on  the  part  of  the  percipient.  Such  clairvoy- 
ance— and  the  word  must  be  understood  to  include 
the  impressions  of  other  senses  than  sight — occurs  in 
its  most  striking  form  with  hypnotised  percipients; 
and  in  the  present  chapter  I  propose  to  deal  with 
results  obtained  in  hypnotism  and  analogous  states, 
reserving  for  the  following  chapter  instances  of  what 
appears  to  be  the  same  faculty  occurring  in  the  normal 
state.1 

MRS.  PIPER. 

The  phenomena  of  clairvoyance,  as  thus  defined, 
have  been  observed  with  great  care  in  the  case  of  an 
American  lady,  Mrs.  Piper.  Mrs.  Piper  had  been 
known  for  some  years  in  the  United  States  as  a  clair- 
voyante  and  spirit  medium,  and  her  trance  utterances 
had  been  carefully  studied  by  Professor  James  and 
Dr.  Hodgson.  In  the  winter  of  1888-89  she  spent 
two  months  and  a  half  in  this  country,  at  the  invita- 
tion of  certain  members  of  the  S.P.R.  She  came  to 
England  as  a  complete  stranger,  and  was  met  on  her 
landing  at  Liverpool  by  Professor  Lodge,  and  during 

1  The  definition  of  clairvoyance  given  in  the  text  differs  somewhat 
from  that  adopted  by  Mrs.  Sidgwick  (Proc.  S.P.I?.,  vol.  vii.  p.  30)— 
viz.,  "A  faculty  of  acquiring  supernormally,  but  not  by  reading  the 
minds  of  persons  present,  a  knowledge  of  facts  such  as  we  normally 
acquire  by  the  use  of  our  senses."  Whether  such  a  faculty  exists  or  not, 
it  is  certain  that  the  phenomena  which  suggest  it  occur  under  the  same 
conditions  and  inextricably  mingled  with  others  which  can,  with  some 
plausibility,  be  explained  as  due  to  thought-transference  from  the  con- 
scious or  unconscious  memory  of  persons  actually  present.  And  as 
the  two  sets  of  phenomena  are  found  together  in  fact,  it  seemed  best  as 
a  matter  of  practical  convenience  that  they  should  not  be  separated 
in  discussion,  Moreover,  the  suggested  application  of  the  word  finds 
ample  justification  in  popular  usage. 


328  APPARITIONS  AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

the  whole  period  she  stayed  either  in  the  houses  of 
Professor  Sidgwick  or  Mr.  Myers  at  Cambridge,  in 
Professor  Lodge's  house  at  Liverpool,  or  in  rooms  in 
London  selected  by  Dr.  Leaf.  Neither  at  Cambridge 
nor  Liverpool  were  there  any  opportunities  of  her 
acquiring  knowledge  of  the  histories  and  circum- 
stances of  the  persons  who  visited  her  for  experi- 
ments, other  than  those  afforded  during  the  actual 
progress  of  the  experiment,  or  by  inquiries  of  servants 
and  children,  the  examination  of  books  and  photo- 
graph albums,  or  from  the  newspapers  and  private 
correspondence.  Practically  she  was  under  close  and 
almost  continuous  surveillance  during  the  whole 
period,  and,  independently  of  the  special  precautions 
taken  to  guard  against  the  acquisition  of  knowledge 
by  any  of  the  means  above  indicated  (Proc.  S.P.R., 
vol.  vi.  pp.  438-440,  446-447,  etc.),  it  is  important  to 
note  that  the  sitters  were  in  almost  every  instance  in- 
troduced to  Mrs.  Piper  under  an  assumed  name;  that 
some  of  them,  and  those  not  the  least  successful,  were 
persons  in  no  way  connected  with  the  S.P.R.,  whose 
admission  was  due  to  circumstances  more  or  less 
accidental;  and  that  on  several  occasions  she  stated 
facts  which  were  not  within  the  conscious  knowledge 
of  any  person  present,  and  which  could  not  conceiv- 
ably have  been  discovered  by  any  process  of  private 
inquiry.1 

The  actual  method  of  experiment  was  as  follows: 
Mrs.  Piper  would  sit  in  a  room  partially  darkened, 
holding  the  hands  of  the  sitter,  whilst  some  other 
person  (generally  Mr.  Myers,  Dr.  Leaf,  Professor 
Lodge,  or  a  shorthand  writer)  would  be  present  to 
take  notes.  Mrs.  Piper  would  presently  go  off  into 

1  It  should  be  added  that  during  the  progress  of  similar  investi- 
gations in  the  United  States  of  America,  Dr.  Hodgson  employed  private 
detectives  to  shadow  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Piper  for  some  weeks,  and  that 
nothing  was  discovered  to  intimate  that  any  steps  were  taken  by  either, 
whether  by  personal  inquiry  or  by  correspondence,  to  ascertain  facts 
relating  to  the  history  of  actual  or  possible  sitters.  Mr.  Piper  did  not 
accompany  his  wife  to  this  country. 


ON   CLAIRVOYANCE   IN   TRANCE. 

a  trance,  attended  at  its  outset  by  slight  convulsive 
movements  resembling  those  of  an  epileptic  attack, 
and  would  after  a  brief  interval  assume  the  voice, 
gestures,  and  phraseology  of  a  man.  In  this  guise 
she  gave  herself  out  as  one  "  Dr.  Phinuit,"  a  medical 
man  who  had  studied  medicine  in  Paris  in  the  first 
quarter  of  the  present  century.  In  the  impersonation 
of  this  character  Mrs.  Piper  used  occasionally  broken 
English,  pronounced  some  words,  proper  names 
especially,  with  a  French  accent,  and  was  admittedly 
sometimes  very  successful  in  diagnosing  and  prescrib- 
ing for  the  complaints  of  her  sitters  and  their  friends. 
"Dr.  Phinuit"  would  then  pour  out  a  more  or  less 
coherent  flood  of  conversation,  questions,  and  remarks 
about  the  relatives  and  friends  of  those  present,  their 
past  history  and  personal  affairs  generally,  some  of 
which  was  apparently  mere  padding,  some  obviously 
chance  shots,  or  "fishing"  for  further  information; 
whilst,  in  the  midst  of  all  the  irrelevancy  and  inco- 
herence, there  would  occasionally  be  clear,  detailed 
statements  on  intimate  matters  of  which  it  is  incon- 
ceivable that  Mrs.  Piper  could  have  attained  any 
knowledge  by  normal  means ;  just  as,  to  quote  the 
apt  metaphor  of  Professor  Lodge,  in  listening  at  a 
telephone  "you  hear  the  dim  and  meaningless 
fragments  of  a  city's  gossip,  till  back  again  comes 
the  voice  obviously  addressed  to  you,  and  speaking 
with  firmness  and  decision."  In  regard  to  the  trance 
itself,  it  has  no  doubt  close  analogy  with  the  hypnotic 
trance,  though  Mrs.  Piper  is  not  readily  amenable 
to  hypnotism  by  ordinary  means,  and  when  hypno- 
tised her  condition  is  described  by  Professor  James 
as  very  different  from  that  of  the  "  medium  trance." 
(Proc.,  vol.  vi.  p.  653  ;  viii.  p.  56.)  In  the  latter  state 
Mrs.  Piper  is,  occasionally  at  least,  anaesthetic  in  cer- 
tain senses,  and  analgesic  in  various  parts  of  the  body 
(viii.  pp.  4-6),  and  her  eyes  are  closed,  with  the  eye- 
balls turned  upwards. 

There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  simulacrum 


330  APPARITIONS  ANt)  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

of  "  Dr.  Phinuit "  is  anything  else  than  an  impersona- 
tion assumed  by  Mrs.  Piper's  subconsciousness.  Such 
impersonations  are  very  common  amongst  "  spirit 
mediums "  everywhere,  and  in  all  forms  of  spon- 
taneously induced  trance.1  Nor  is  "  Dr.  Phinuit " 
the  only  form  assumed  by  Mrs.  Piper's  secondary 
consciousness.  It  frequently  happened  in  the  trance 
that  "Dr.  Phinuit"  gave  place  to  an  impersonation, 
often  recognised  as  life-like  and  characteristic,  of 
some  deceased  relative  of  the  sitter's,  as  in  the  case 
of  "Uncle  Jerry,"  mentioned  below.2  Probably  in 
many  cases  the  basis  of  these  representations  was 
supplied  by  unguarded  remarks  of  the  sitters  them- 
selves, or  by  skilful  guesses  on  the  part  of  "  Phinuit," 
sometimes  possibly  eked  out  by  telepathic  drafts  on 
the  sitters'  memories.  As  regards  Mrs.  Piper's  con- 
scious share  in  the  matter,  the  persons  who  have 
observed  her  most  closely,  both  in  this  country  and 
in  America,  agree  in  believing  that  she  is  a  woman 
of  transparent  simplicity,  and  with  a  marked  absence 
of  inquisitiveness  or  even  ordinary  interest  in  matters 
outside  her  domestic  concerns,  and  that  she  is  incap- 

1  Independently  of  the  fact  that  "  Dr.  Phinuit "  is  as  obviously 
untrustworthy  as  Mrs.  Piper  in  her  natural  state  is  apparently  the 
reverse,  the  inquiries  which  have  been  made  have  entirely  failed  to 
corroborate  the  accounts,  in  themselves  not  always  concordant,  which 
"Dr.  Phinuit"  has  given  of  his  birth,  his  education,  and  other  circum- 
stances in  his  "earth-life."  His  knowledge  of  his  native  language  is 
confined  to  a  few  simple  phrases  and  a  slight  accent,  frequently  found 
useful  in  disguising  a  bad  shot  at  a  proper  name ;  and  the  careful 
investigations  conducted  by  Dr.  Hodgson  into  Mrs.  Piper's  antecedents 
as  a  "medium  "  have  made  it  almost  certain  that  "Dr.  Phinuit"  is  an 
invention,  borrowed  from  the  person  through  whose  agency  Mrs.  Piper 
first  became  entranced,  and  who  purported  himself  to  be  controlled  by 
a  French  doctor  named  Albert  Finnett  (pronounced  Finne*).  It  should 
be  added  that  "Dr.  Phinuit"  possesses  apparently  no  knowledge  of  the 
medical  names  of  drugs,  nor  any  more  intimate  acquaintance  with  their 
properties  than  could  be  gathered  from  a  manual  of  domestic  medicine. 
(Vol.  viii.  pp.  47,  50,  51,  etc.) 

*  At  the  present  time  (May  1894)  "Dr.  Phimyt"  has,  I  understand, 
almost  entirely  ceased  to  "control"  Mrs.  Piper;  his  place  being  taken 
by  the  soi-disant  spirit  of  a  young  American,  'recently  deceased,  who 
has  given  remarkable  proofs  of  his  identity. 


ON   CLAlkVOYANCk  IN   TRANCfc. 

able,  morally  and  intellectually,  of  carrying  on  a 
prolonged  and  systematic  deception,  and  must  by  all 
impartial  persons  be  fully  acquitted  of  responsibility 
for  "Dr.  Phinuit's"  proceedings.  As  is  almost  invari- 
ably the  case  with  entranced  persons,  in  the  normal 
state  she  appears  to  know  nothing  of  what  goes  on 
in  the  trance,  and  to  share  none  of  the  information 
supernormally  acquired  by  her  secondary  conscious- 
ness. As  to  whether  "  Dr.  Phinuit "  is  equally  ignorant 
of  Mrs.  Piper's  thoughts  and  of  knowledge  acquired 
normally  by  her,  it  is  impossible  to  speak  with  equal 
confidence.  There  can  be  little  doubt  either  that  he 
is,  or  that  he  wishes,  for  the  sake  of  effect,  to  produce 
the  impression  that  he  is.  But,  as  is  not  infrequently 
the  case,  the  second  personality  is  markedly  inferior 
in  its  moral  character  to  the  normal  consciousness. 
Its  ruling  motive  in  this  case  appears  to  be  a  pro- 
digious vanity,  which  drives  "Dr.  Phinuit,"  when 
telepathy  fails,  into  shuffling,  equivocation,  and  all 
manner  of  contemptible  devices  for  eliciting  informa- 
tion, and  passing  it  off  as  supernormally  acquired. 
Like  the  Strong  Man  of  the  music-halls,  to  make 
good  his  bragging  he  is  forced  continually  to  eke 
out  what  is  genuinely  abnormal  by  artifices  at  once 
disingenuous  and  transparent.1 

The  following  is  a  summary  of  the  proceedings  at 
two  of  the  more  successful  sittings.  Mrs.  Piper  was 
at  the  time  staying  in  Liverpool,  with  Professor 
Lodge,  who  introduced  to  her  on  the  morning  of 
December  23rd,  1888,  under  the  pseudonym  of  Dr. 
Jones,2  a  medical  man  practising  in  the  city.  Notes 

1  I   am   glad   to   be   able   to   append   the    following   testimonial   to 
Phinuit's  good  qualities.     An  investigator  who  has  had  unusual  facilities 
for  observing  both  Dr.  Phinuit  and  Mrs.  Piper,  after  reading  the  account 
given  in  the  text,  writes  to  me:  "I  suppose  the  account  of  Phinuit  is 
true  as  far  as  it  goes,  but  all  the  same  ...   I  suppose  because  he  is 
more  sympathetic,  I  an?  rather  fond  of  Phinuit." 

2  At  the  evening  sitting  a  servant  unfortunately  introduced  the  sitters 
by  their  real  names,  but  the  circumstance  will  hardly,  I  think,  be  held 
materially  to  affect  the  evidence. 


332  APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

were  taken  throughout  by  Professor  Lodge,  who  was 
himself  ignorant  of  nearly  all  the  details  given.  The 
conversation  was  practically  a  monologue,  as  Dr.  C 
himself  remained  almost  entirely  silent,  assenting, 
"  with  a  grunt,  to  wrong  quite  as  much  as  to  right 
statements."  It  will  be  observed  that  here,  as  through- 
out, "Dr.  Phinuit"  appears  to  gain  his  information 
in  an  auditory  form. 

No,  96. 

Sitting  No.  42.     Monday  morning,  December  23;-^. 
Present :  Dr.  C.  (introduced  as  Dr  Jones)  and  O.  J.  L. 

[The  following  is  an  abstract  of  the  correct,  or  subsequently 
corrected  or  otherwise  noteworthy,  statements.] 

"  You  have  a  little  lame  girl,  lame  in  the  thigh,  aged  thhteen  ; 
either  second  or  third.  She's  a  little  daisy.  I  do  like  her.  Dark 
eyes,  the  gentlest  of  the  lot;  good  deal  of  talent  for  music.  She 
will  be  a  brilliant  woman  ;  don't  forget  it.  She  has  more  sym- 
pathy, more  mind,  more — quite  a  little  daisy.  She's  got  a  mark, 
a  curious  little  mark,  when  you  look  closely,  over  eye,  a  scar 
through  forehead  over  left  eye.  The  boy's  erratic ;  a  little  thing, 
but  a  little  devil.  Pretty  good  when  you  know  him.  He'll 
make  an  architect  likely.  Let  him  go  to  school.  His  mother's 
too  nervous.  It  will  do  him  good.  [This  was  a  subject  in 
dispute.]  You  have  a  boy  and  two  girls  and  a  baby ;  four  in  the 
body.  It's  the  little  lame  one  I  care  for.  There  are  two 
mothers  connected  with  you,  one  named  Mary.  Your  aunt 
passed  out  with  cancer.  You  have  indigestion,  and  take  hot 
water  for  it.  You  have  had  a  bad  experience.  You  nearly 
slipped  out  once  on  the  water."  [Dangerous  yacht  accident  last 
summer.  Above  statements  are  correct  except  the  lameness. 
See  next  sitting.] 

Sitting  No.  43.     Monday  evening,  December  l^rd. 

Present:  Dr.  and  Mrs.  C.  and  O.  J,  L.  [Statements  correct 
when  not  otherwise  noted.] 

"  How's  little  Daisy  ?  She  will  get  over  her  cold.  But  there's 
something  the  matter  with  her  head.  There's  somebody  round 
you  lame  and  somebody  hard  of  hearing.  That  little  girl  has 
got  music  in  her.  This  lady  is  fidgety.  There  are  four  of  you, 
four  going  to  stop  with  you,  one  gone  out  «f  the  body.  One  got 
irons  on  his  foot  Mrs.  Allen,  in  her  surroundings,  is  the  one 


ON   CLAIRVOYANCE   IN   TRANCE.  333 

with  iron  on  leg.  [Allen  was  maiden  name  of  mother  of  lame 
one.]  There's  about  400  of  your  family.  There's  Kate  ;  you 
call  her  Kitty.  She's  the  one  that's  kind  of  a  crank.  Trust- 
worthy, but  cranky.  She  will  fly  off  and  get  married,  she  will. 
Think's  she  knows  everything,  she  does.  [This  is  the  nurse- 
girl,  Kitty,  about  whom  they  seem  to  have  a  joke  that  she  is 
a  walking  compendium  of  infoimation.]  (An  envelope  with 
letters  written  inside,  N — H — P — O— Q,  was  here  handed  in, 
and  Phinuit  wrote  down  B — J — R — O — I — S,  not  in  the  best 
of  tempers.)  A  second  cousin  of  your  mother's  drinks.  The 
little  dark-eyed  one  is  Daisy.  I  like  her.  She  can't  hear  very 
well.  The  lame  one  is  a  sister's  child.  [A  cousin's  child,  the 
one  n£e  Allen,  really.]  The  one  that's  deaf  in  her  head  is  the 
one  that's  got  the  music  in  her.  That's  Daisy,  and  she's  going 
to  have  the  paints  I  told  you  of.  [Fond  of  painting.]  She's 
growing  up  to  be  a  beautiful  woman.  She  ought  to  have  a 
paper  ear.  -  [An  artificial  drum  had  been  contemplated.]  You 
have  an  Aunt  Eliza.  There  are  three  Maries,  Mary  the  mother, 
Mary  the  mother,  Mary  the  mother.  [Grandmother,  aunt,  and 
granddaughter.]  Three  brothers  and  two  sisters  your  lady  has. 
Three  in  the  body.  There  were  eleven  in  your  family,  two 
passed  out  small  [Only  know  of  nine.]  Fred  is  going  to  pass 
out  suddenly.  He  married  a  cousin.  He  writes.  He  has 
shining  things.  Lorgnettes.  He  is  away.  He's  got  a  catchy 
trouble  with  heart  and  kidneys,  and  will  pass  out  suddenly." 
[Not  the  least  likely.] 

NOTES. — The  most  striking  part  of  this  sitting  is  the  promin- 
ence given  to  Dr.  C.'s  favourite  little  daughter,  Daisy,  a  child 
very  intelligent  and  of  a  very  sweet  disposition,  but  quite  deaf; 
although  her  training  enables  her  to  go  to  school  and  receive 
oiclinary  lessons  with  other  children.  At  the  first  sitting  she  is 
supposed  erroneously  to  be  lame,  but  at  the  second  sitting  this 
is  corrected  and  explained,  and  all  said  about  her  is  practically 
correct,  including  the  cold  she  then  had.  Mrs.  Piper  had  had 
no  opportunity  whatever  of  knowing  or  hearing  of  the  C.  children 
by  ordinary  social  means.  We  barely  know  them  ourselves. 
Phinuit  grasped  the  child's  name  gradually,  using  it  at  first  as  a 
mere  description.  I  did  not  know  it  myself. 

The  following  is  a  summary  of  the  false  assertions  : — 

ERRONEOUS  STATEMENTS. 
At  Sitting  42  : — 

"Your  lady's  Fanny;  well,  there  is  a  Fanny.  [No.]  Fred 
has  light  hair,  brownish  moustache,  prominent  nose.  [No.] 
Your  thesis  was  some*.special  thing.  I  should  say  about  lungs." 
[No.] 


334  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

At  Sitting 4$:— 

"Your  mother's  name  was  Elizabeth.  [No.]  Her  father's 
lame.  [No.]  Of  your  children  there's  Eddie  and  Willie  and 
Fannie  or  Annie  and  a  sister  that  faints,  and  Willie  and  Katie 
(no,  Katie  don't  count)  [being  the  nurse],  and  Harry  and  the 
little  dark-eyed  one,  Daisy.  [All  wrong  except  Daisy.]  One 
passed  out  with  sore  throat  [No.]  The  boy  looks  about  8. 
[No,  4.]  Your  wife's  father  had  something  wrong  with  leg;  one 
named  William.  [No.]  Your  grandmother  had  a  sister  who 
married  a  Howe—Henry  Howe.  [Unknown.]  There's  a 
Thomson  connected  with  you  [no],  and  if  you  look  you  will 
find  a  Howe  too.  Your  brother  the  captain  [correct],  with  a 
lovely  wife,  who  has  brown  hair  [correct],  has  had  trouble  in 
head  [no],  and  has  two  girls  and  a  boy."  [No,  three  girls.] 

In  this  case  it  will  be  seen  that  no  details  were 
given  which  could  not  have  been  derived  from  the 
conscious  knowledge  of  the  sitter.  Apart  from  the 
fact  that  the  agent  made  no  effort  to  impress  his 
thought,  it  resembles  a  case  of  ordinary  telepathy. 
Of  much  the  same  character  are  the  following  details, 
quoted  from  Professor  James's  account  of  his  inter- 
views with  Mrs.  Piper  (Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  vi.  pp.  658, 
659):-' 

No.  97.— From  Professor  W.  JAMES. 

"The  most  convincing  things  said  about  my  own  immediate 
household  were  either  very  intimate  or  very  trivial.  Unfortu- 
nately the  former  things  cannot  well  be  published.  Of  the  trivial 
things,  I  have  forgotten  the  greater  number,  but  the  following, 
raros  nantes^  may  serve  as  samples  of  their  class  :  She  said  that 
we  had  lost  recently  a  rug,  and  I  a  waistcoat.  [She  wrongly 
accused  a  person  of  stealing  the  rug,  which  was  afterwards 
found  in  the  house.]  She  told  of  my  killing  a  grey-and-white 
cat,  with  ether,  and  described  how  it  had  'spun  round  and 
round '  before  dying.  She  told  how  my  New  York  aunt  had 
written  a  letter  to  my  wife,  warning  her  against  all  mediums, 
and  then  went  off  on  a  most  amusing  criticism,  full  of  traits  vifs, 
of  the  excellent  woman's  character.  [Of  course  no  one  but  my 
wife  and  I  knew  the  existence  of  the  letter  in  question.]  She 
was  strong  on  the  events  in  our  nurserj-,  and  gave  striking 
advice  during  our  first  visit  to  her  about  the  way  to  deal  with 
certain  s  tantrums '  of  our  second  child,  '  little  Billy-boy,*  as 


ON   CLAIRVOYANCE  IN   TRANCE.  335 

she  called  him,  reproducing  his  nursery  name.  She  told  how 
the  crib  creaked  at  night,  how  a  certain  rocking-chair  creaked 
mysteriously,  how  my  wife  had  heard  footsteps  on  the  stairs, 
etc.,  etc.  Insignificant  as  these  things  sound  when  read,  the 
accumulation  of  a  large  number  of  them  has  an  irresistible  effect. 
And  I  repeat  again  what  I  said  before,  that  taking  everything 
that  I  know  of  Mrs.  P.  into  account,  the  result  is  to  make  me 
feel  as  absolutely  certain  as  I  am  of  any  personal  fact  in  the 
world  that  she  knows  things  in  her  trances  which  she  cannot 
possibly  have  heard  in  her  waking  state,  and  that  the  definitive 
philosophy  of  her  trances  is  yet  to  be  found.  The  limitations  of 
her  trance-information,  its  discontinuity  and  fitfulness,  and  its 
apparent  inability  to  develop  beyond  a  certain  point,  although 
they  end  by  rousing  one's  moral  and  human  impatience  with  the 
phenomenon,  yet  are,  from  a  scientific  point  of  view,  amongst  its 
most  interesting  peculiarities,  since  where  there  are  limits  there 
are  conditions,  and  the  discovery  of  these  is  always  the  begin- 
ning of  an  explanation. 

"  This  is  all  that  I  can  tell  you  of  Mrs.  Piper.  I  wish  it  were 
more  *  scientific.1  But,  valeat  quantum !  it  is  the  best  I  can 
do." 

But  there  are  many  cases  (Professor  Lodge  enu- 
merates forty-one  instances,  Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  vi.  pp. 
649,  650)  in  which  details  were  faithfully  given  by 
"  Phinuit,"  which  had  either  been  forgotten  by  the 
sitters,  or  could  not  at  any  time  have  been  within 
their  knowledge.  The  instances  clearly  falling  under 
the  last  head  are  perhaps  too  few  to  justify  any 
inference  being  founded  on  them,  although  in  view  of 
some  of  the  cases  to  be  quoted  later,  telepathy  from 
persons  at  a  distance  from  the  percipient  seems  a  not 
impossible  explanation.  The  following  case,  given 
by  Professor  Lodge,  which  at  first  sight  seems  to 
involve  some  such  hypothesis,  may  perhaps  be  ex- 
plained by  the  telepathic  filching  from  his  mind  of 
the  memories  of  incidents  heard  in  his  boyhood  and 
long  forgotten.  It  is  right  to  say  that  Professor 
Lodge  has  no  recollection  of  ever  having  heard  of 
these  incidents,  and  regards  this  explanation  (or 
indeed  any  other  which  has  been  suggested)  as 
extremely  improbable.  (Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  vi.  pp. 
458-460.) 


336  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

No.  98. — From  PROFESSOR  LODGE,  F.R.S. 

"It  happens  that  an  uncle  of  mine  in  London,  now  quite  an 
old  man,  and  one  of  a  surviving  three  out  of  a  very  large  family, 
had  a  twin  brother  who  died  some  twenty  or  more  years  ago.  I 
interested  him  generally  in  the  subject,  and  wrote  to  ask  if  he 
would  lend  me  some  relic  of  this  brother.  By  morning  post  on 
a  certain  day  I  received  a  curious  old  gold  watch,  which  this 
brother  had  worn  and  been  fond  of;  and  that  same  morning, 
no  one  in  the  house  having  seen  it  or  knowing  anything  about 
it,  I  handed  it  to  Mrs.  Piper  when  in  a  state  of  trance. 

"  I  was  told  almost  immediately  that  it  had  belonged  to  one 
of  my  uncles — one  that  had  been  mentioned  before  as  having 
died  from  the  effects  of  a  fall — one  that  had  been  very  fond  of 
Uncle  Robert,  the  name  of  the  survivor — that  the  watch  was 
now  in  possession  of  this  same  Uncle  Robert,  with  whom  he 
was  anxious  to  communicate.  After  some  difficulty  and  many 
wrong  attempts  Dr.  Phinuit  caught  the  name,  Jerry,  short  for 
Jeremiah,  and  said  emphatically,  as  if  a  third  person  was 
speaking,  '  This  is  my  watch,  and  Robert  is  my  brother,  and  I 
am  here.  Uncle  Jerry,  my  watch.'  All  this  at  the  first  sitting 
on  the  very  morning  the  watch  bad  arrived  by  post,  no  one  but 
myself  and  a  shorthand  clerk  who  happened  to  have  been 
introduced  for  the  first  time  at  this  sitting  by  me,  and  whose 
antecedents  are  well  known  to  me,  being  present. 

"  Having  thus  ostensibly  got  into  communication  through 
some  means  or  other  with  what  purported  to  be  a  deceased 
relative,  whom  I  had  indeed  known  slightly  in  his  later  years  of 
blindness,  but  of  whose  early  life  I  knew  nothing,  I  pointed  out 
to  him  that  to  make  Uncle  Robert  aware  of  his  presence  it 
would  be  well  to  recall  trivial  details  of  their  boyhood,  all  of 
which  I  would  faithfully  report. 

"  He  quite  caught  the  idea,  and  proceeded  during  several 
successive  sittings  ostensibly  to  instruct  Dr.  Phinuit  to  mention 
a  number  of  little  things  such  as  would  enable  his  brother  to 
recognise  him. 

"  References  to  his  blindness,  illness,  and  main  facts  of  his  life 
were  comparatively  useless  from  my  point  of  view ;  but  these 
details  of  boyhood,  two-thirds  of  a  century  ago,  were  utterly  and 
entirely  out  of  my  ken.  My  father  was  one  of  the  younger 
members  of  the  family,  and  only  knew  these  brothers  as  men. 

"  '  Uncle  Jerry7  recalled  episodes  such  as  swimming  the  creek 
when  they  were  boys  together,  and  running  some  risk  of  getting 
drowned  ;  killing  a  cat  in  Smith's  field  ;  the  possession  of  a 
small  rifle,  and  of  a  long  peculiar  skin,  like^a  snake-skin,  which 
he  thought  was  now  in  the  possession  of  Uncle  Robert. 

"  All  these  facts  have  been  more  or  less  completely  verified. 
But  the  interesting  thing  is  that  his  twin  brother,  from  whom  I 


ON   CLAIRVOYANCE   IN   TRANCE.  337 

got  the  watch,  and  with  whom  I  was  thus  in  a  sort  of  com- 
munication, could  not  remember  them  all.  He  recollected 
something  about  swimming  the  creek,  though  he  himself  had 
merely  looked  on.  He  had  a  distinct  recollection  of  having 
had  the  snake-skin,  and  of  the  box  in  which  it  was  kept,  though 
he  does  not  know  where  it  is  now.  But  he  altogether  denied 
killing  the  cat,  and  could  not  recall  Smith's  field. 

"  His  memory,  however,  is  decidedly  failing  him,  and  he  was 
good  enough  to  write  to  another  brother,  Frank,  living  in  Corn- 
wall, an  old  sea  captain,  and  ask  if  he  had  any  better  remem- 
brance of  certain  facts — of  course  not  giving  any  inexplicable 
reasons  for  asking.  The  result  of  this  inquiry  was  triumphantly 
to  vindicate  the  existence  of  Smith's  field  as  a  place  near  their 
home,  where  they  used  to  play,  in  Barking,  Essex;  and  the 
killing  of  a  cat  by  another  brother  was  also  recollected  ;  while 
of  the  swimming  of  the  creek,  near  a  mill-race,  full  details  were 
given,  Frank  and  Jerry  being  the  heroes  of  that  foolhardy 
episode. 

"  Some  of  the  other  facts  given  I  have  not  yet  been  able  to 
get  verified.  Perhaps  there  arc  as  many  unverified  as  verified. 
And  some  things  appear,  so  far  as  I  can  make  out,  to  be  false. 
One  little  thing  I  could  verify  myself,  and  it  is  good,  inasmuch 
as  no  one  is  likely  to  have  had  any  recollection,  even  if  they 
had  any  knowledge,  of  it.  Phinuit  told  me  to  take  the  watch 
out  of  its  case  (it  was  the  old-fashioned  turnip  variety)  and 
examine  it  in  a  good  light  afterwards,  and  I  should  see  some 
nicks  near  the  handle  which  Jerry  said  he  had  cut  into  it  with 
his  knife. 

"  Some  faint  nicks  are  there.  I  had  never  had  the  watch  out 
of  its  case  before  ;  being,  indeed,  careful  neither  to  finger  it 
myself  nor  to  let  any  one  else  finger  it. 

"  I  never  let  Mrs.  Piper  in  her  waking  state  see  the  watch  till 
quite  towards  the  end  of  the  time,  when  I  purposely  left  it  lying 
on  my  desk  while  she  came  out  of  the  trance.  Before  long  she 
noticed  it,  with  natural  curiosity,  evidently  becoming  conscious 
of  its  existence  then  for  the  first  time."1 

There  are  many  other  cases  of  clairvoyance  on 
record  of  the  same  type  as  Mrs.  Piper's,  but  none 

1  It  is  impossible  by  means  of  a  few  short  extracts  to  give  a  fair  idea 
either  of  the  strength  of  the  evidence  for  telepathy  afforded  by  the 
phenomena  observed  with  Mrs.  Piper,  or  of  the  variety  and  complexity 
of  the  problems  there  presented.  Readers  who  are  interested  in  the 
subject  are  referred  to  the  record  of  the  observations  made  by  the 
S,  P.  R. ,  occupying  nearly  400  closely-printed  octavo  pages.  (Proc. ,  vol. 
vi.  pp.  436-660?  vol.  viii.  pp.  1-167.)  Further  observations  have 
been  made  during  the  ytar  1893  in  the  United  States  by  Dr.  Hodgson 
and  others,  the  records  of  which  have  not  yet  been  published. 

22 


338  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

which  have  been  studied  by  so  many  observers  with 
equal  care,  and  through  so  prolonged  a  period.  In 
the  more  usual  form  of  trance  clairvoyance,  however, 
the  percipient's  impressions  are  of  a  visual  character. 
He  describes  scenes  which  he  appears  to  himself  to 
see.  In  the  pages  of  the  Zoist  and  elsewhere  vision 
of  the  kind  is  commonly  called  "travelling  clair- 
voyance," it  having  generally  been  suggested  to  the 
hypnotised  subject  that  he  was  actually  present  at 
the  scene  which  he  was  desired  to  describe.  It  is 
possible  that  this  suggestion,  almost  universally  given, 
may  have  had  some  influence  in  determining  the 
pictorial  form  which  the  telepathic  impressions 
assume  in  such  cases,  as  it  has  certainly  led  the 
percipient  himself  and  the  bystanders  in  many  cases 
to  believe  in  an  extra-corporeal  visitation  of  the 
scenes  described.  Often  no  details  are  given  which 
were  not  within  the  knowledge,  if  not  consciously  pre- 
sent to  the  thoughts,  of  one  of  the  bystanders.  Such, 
for  instance,  is  the  case  quoted  by  Dr.  Backman,  of  Kal- 
mar,  in  his  paper  on  clairvoyance  (Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  vii. 
pp.  205,  206 ;  viii.  405-407),  in  which  the  Director- 
General  of  Pilotage  for  Sweden,  M.  Ankarkrona,  re- 
cords how,  when  absent  from  home,  he  received  from  a 
maid-servant  hypnotised  by  Baron  Von  Rosen  an  ex- 
tremely detailed  description  of  the  interior  of  his  own 
house  and  its  inmates.  Hardly  a  detail  was  incorrect, 
but  no  single  detail  was  given  which  could  not  have 
been  extracted  from  M.  Ankarkrona's  mind.  To 
such  a  case  there  is  no  difficulty  in  applying  the 
telepathic  explanation. 

No.  99. — From  A.  W.  DOBBIE. 

In  the  case  to  be  next  quoted,  however,  the  infor- 
mation given  by  the  hypnotised  subject  transcends 
the  conscious  knowledge,  at  all  events,  of  those 
present  The  account  comes  from  Mr.  A.  W.  Dobbie, 
of  Adelaide,  South  Australia,  who  has  for  some  years 


ON   CLAIRVOYANCE  IN  TRANCE.  339 

studied  the  phenomena  of  hypnotism  on  a  number  of 
subjects,  and  has  observed  some  striking  manifesta- 
tions of  telepathy  and  clairvoyance.  I  quote  from  a 
letter  written  to  me  in  July  1886,  containing  a  copy 
of  his  notes  made  at  the  time  of  the  experiment,  "  the 
moment  the  words  were  uttered."  The  Hon.  Dr. 
Campbell,  M.L.C.,  who  had  lost  a  gold  sleeve-link, 
brought  its  fellow  on  the  28th  May  1886  to  Mr. 
Dobbie,  who  placed  it  in  the  hand  of  one  of  his 
subjects.  Then 

"  Miss  Martha  began  by  first  accurately  describing  Dr.  Camp- 
bell's features,  then  spoke  of  a  little  fair-haired  boy  who  had 
a  stud,  or  sleeve-link,  in  his  hand,  also  of  a  lady  calling  him 
'  Neil';  then  said  that  this  little  boy  had  taken  the  link  into  a 
place  like  a  nursery  where  there  were  some  toys,  especially  a 
large  toy  elephant,  and  that  he  had  dropped  the  link  into  this 
elephant  through  a  hole  which  had  been  torn  or  knocked  in 
the  breast ;  also  that  he  had  taken  it  out  again,  and  gave  two 
or  three  other  interesting  particulars.  We  were  reluctantly 
compelled  to  postpone  further  investigation  until  two  or  three 
evenings  afterwards. 

"  On  the  next  occasion  (in  the  interval,  however,  the  missing 
sleeve-link  had  been  found,  but  left  untouched),  I  again  placed 
the  link  in  her  hand  and  the  previous  particulars  were  at  once 
reproduced ;  but  as  she  seemed  to  be  getting  on  very  slowly,  it 
occurred  to  Dr.  Campbell  to  suggest  placing  his  hand  on  that 
of  the  clairvoyant,  so  I  placed  him  en  rapport  and  allowed  him 
to  do  so,  he  simply  touching  the  back  of  her  hand  with  the 
points  of  his  fingers.  As  she  still  seemed  to  have  great  diffi- 
culty (she  is  always  much  slower  than  her  sister)  in  proceeding, 
it  suddenly  occurred  to  me  that  it  would  be  an  interesting 
experiment  to  place  Miss  Eliza  Dixon  en  rapport  with  Miss 
Martha,  so  I  simply  joined  their  disengaged  hands,  and  Miss 
Eliza  immediately  commenced  as  follows,  viz. : — 

"  '  I'm  in  a  house,  upstairs,  I  was  in  a  bathroom,  then  I  went 
into  another  room  nearly  opposite,  there  is  a  large  mirror  just 
inside  the  door  on  the  left  hand,  there  is  a  double-sized  dressing- 
table  with  drawers  down  each  side  of  it,  the  sleeve-link  is  in 
the  corner  of  the  drawer  nearest  the  door.  When  they  found  it 
they  left  it  there.  I  know  why  they  left  it  there,  it  was  because 
they  wanted  to  see  if  we  would  find  it.  I  can  see  a  nice  easy- 
chair  there,  it  is  an  old  one,  I  would  like  it  when  I  am  put  to 
sleep,  because  it  is*nice  and  low.  The  bed  has  curtains,  they 
are  a  sort  of  brownfeh  net  and  have  a  fringe  of  darker  brown. 
The  wall  paper  is  of  a  light  blue  colour.  There  is  a  cane  lounge 


340  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

there  and  a  pretty  Japanese  screen  behind  it,  the  screen  folds 
up.  There  is  a  portrait  of  an  old  gentleman  over  the  mantel- 
piece, he  is  dead,  I  knew  him  when  he  was  alive,  his  name  is  the 
same  as  the  gentleman  who  acts  as  Governor  when  the  Gover- 
nor is  absent  from  the  colony,1  I  will  tell  you  his  name  directly 
— it  is  the  Rev.  Mr.  Way.  It  was  a  little  boy  who  put  the 
sleeve-link  in  that  drawer,  he  is  very  fair,  his  hair  is  almost 
white,  he  is  a  pretty  little  boy,  he  has  blue  eyes  and  is  about 
three  years  old.  The  link  had  been  left  on  that  table,  the  little 
boy  was  in  the  nursery,  and  he  went  into  the  bedroom  after 
the  gentleman  had  left.  I  can  see  who  the  gentleman  is,  it  is 
Dr.  Campbell.  Doesn't  that  little  boy  look  a  young  Turk,  the 
link  is  quite  a  handful  for  his  little  hand,  he  is  running  about 
with  it  very  pleased ;  but  he  doesn't  seem  to  know  what  to  do 
with  it.  (A  ) 

[Dr.  Campbell  was  not  present  from  this  point] 

"'  Now  I  can  hear  some  one  calling  up  the  stairs,  a  lady  is 
calling  two  names,  Colin  is  one  and  Neil  is  the  other,  the  other 
boy  is  about  five  years  old  and  is  darker  than  the  other.  The 
eldest,  Colin,  is  going  downstairs  now,  he  is  gone  into  what 
looks  like  a  dining-room,  the  lady  says,  "Where  is  Neil?" 
"Upstairs,  ma."  "Go  and  tell  him  to  come  down  at  once." 
The  little  fair-haired  boy  had  put  the  link  down ;  but  when  he 
heard  his  brother  coming  up,  he  picked  it  up  again.  Colin 
says — "  Neil,  you  are  to  come  down  at  once."  "  I  won't,"  says 
Neil.  "You're  a  goose,"  replies  Colin,  and  he  turned  and  went 
down  without  Neil.  What  a  young  monkey !  now  he  has  gone 
into  the  nursery  and  put  the  link  into  a  large  toy  elephant,  he 
put  it  through  a  hole  in  front,  which  is  broken.  He  has  gone 
downstairs  now,  I  suppose  he  thinks  it  is  safe  there. 

" '  Now  that  gentleman  has  come  into  the  room  again  and  he 
wants  that  link;  he  is  looking  all  about  for  it,  he  thinks  it  might 
be  knocked  down :  the  lady  is  there  now  too,  and  they  are  both 
looking  for  it.  The  lady  says,  "Are  you  sure  you  put  it  there?" 
The  gentleman  says,  "  Yes." 

"  *  Now  it  seems  like  next  day,  the  servant  is  turning  the 
carpet  up  and  looking  all  about  for  it ;  but  can't  find  it. 

<f<The  gentleman  is  asking  that  young  Turk  if  he  has  seen  it,  he 
knows  that  he  is  fond  of  pretty  things.  The  little  boy  says,  "No." 
He  seems  to  think  it  is  fine  fun  to  serve  his  father  like  that. 

"  *  Now  it  seems  to  be  another  day  and  the  little  boy  is  in  the 
nursery  again,  he  has  taken  the  link  out  of  the  elephant,  now 
he  has  dropped  it  into  that  drawer,  that  is  all  I  have  to  tell  you 
about  it,  I  told  you  the  rest  before.' " 
s 

1  Chief  Justice  Way  is  the  gentleman  who  acts  as  Deputy  for  his 
Excellency  when  absent  from  the  colony,  — A.  W.  D. 


ON   CLAIRVOYANCE   IN   TRANCE.  341 

Dr.  Campbell,  after  reading  through  the  above 
account,  writes  : — 

"  ADELAIDE,  July  gtk,  1886. 

"  At  the  point  (A)  the  stance  was  discontinued  till  the  next 
sitting,  when  I  was  absent.  The  conversation  reported  as 
passing  between  the  children  is  correct.  The  description  of 
the  room  is  accurate  in  every  point.  The  portrait  is  that  of  the 
late  Rev.  James  Way.  The  description  of  the  children  and 
their  names  are  true.  The  fact  that  the  link  was  discovered  in 
the  drawer,  in  the  interval  between  one  sitting  and  the  final  one, 
and  that  the  link  was  left  there,  pending  the  discovery  of  it  by 
the  clairvoyant,  is  also  correct,  as  this  was  my  suggestion  to 
Mrs.  Carupbell  when  she  showed  it  to  me  in  the  corner  of  the 
drawer.  In  fact,  every  circumstance  reported  is  absolutely 
correct.  I  know,  further,  that  neither  of  the  clairvoyants  has 
ever  been  inside  of  my  door.  My  children  are  utterly  unknown 
to  them,  either  in  appearance  or  by  name.  I  may  say  also  that 
they  had  no  knowledge  of  my  intention  to  place  the  link  in  their 
possession,  or  even  of  my  presence  at  the  stance,  as  they  were 
both  on  each  occasion  in  the  mesmeric  sleep  when  I  arrived." 

In  a  later  letter,  dated  December  i6th,  1887,  Dr. 
Campbell  writes: — 

"  With  respect  to  the  large  toy  elephant,  I  certainly  knew  of 
its  existence,  but  was  not  thinking  of  it  at  the  time  the  clairvoy- 
ant was  speaking.  I  did  not  know  even  by  suspicion  that  the 
elephant  was  so  mutilated  as  to  have  a  large  opening  in  its  chest, 
and  on  coming  home  had  to  examine  the  toy  to  see  whether  the 
statement  was  correct.  I  need  hardly  say  that  it  was  absolutely 
correct." 

Mr.  Dobbie  tells  us  that  "  neither  he  nor  his  clairvoyants  had 
any  opportunity,  directly  or  indirectly,  of  knowing  any  of  the 
particulars  brought  out  by  the  clairvoyant."  He  afterwards 
saw  the  room  described,  and  says  "the  description  is  simply 
perfect  in  every  particular." 

This  narrative  presents  us,  at  any  rate,  with  a  case 
of  thought-transference  of  a  very  remarkable  kind,  an 
accurate  and  detailed  description  being  given  of  a 
room  wholly  unknown  to  the  clairvoyantes.  But  it  is 
doubtful  whether  even  here  more  was  stated  by  the 
percipients  than  ^ould  have  been  extracted  from  the 
minds  of  those  ^present  The  statement  as  to  the 
child  placing  the  sleeve-link  in  the  toy  elephant  could 


342  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

not,  unfortunately,  be  verified,  and  the  conversation 
described  was  natural  enough  under  the  circumstances, 
and  may  have  been  the  result  of  a  happy  conjecture. 
It  is  unfortunate  that  a  detailed  description  of  the 
room  was  not  given  until  the  second  sitting,  since 
that  lessens  the  improbability,  in  any  case  consider- 
able, that  some  information  as  to  the  details  given 
might  have  reached  the  ears  of  the  clairvoyantcs.1 
The  most  remarkable  feature  in  the  case  is  the  state- 
ment, subsequently  verified,  as  to  the  hole  in  the  front 
of  the  elephant.  We  must  suppose  either  that  this 
detail  was  derived  from  the  mind  of  the  child,  or  that 
Dr.  Campbell  had  once  observed  the  hole  but  had 
forgotten  its  existence  at  the  time  of  the  experiment. 
Mr.  Dobbie  gives  other  instances  of  clairvoyance,  by 
one  of  which  the  hypothesis  of  thought-transference 
from  a  distant  and  unknown  person  is  strongly 
suggested.  (Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  vii.  p.  63,  etc.) 

No.  loo.— From  DR.  WILTSE. 

We  next  quote  two  cases  out  of  several  recorded 
by  Dr.  A.  S.  Wiltse,  of  Skiddy,  Kansas  (Proc.  S.P.R., 
vol.  vii.  pp.  72  et  seq.}.  The  percipient  was  Fannie  G., 
a  servant  of  about  fifteen  years,  who  was  frequently 
hypnotised  by  Dr.  Wiltse  in  the  summer  of  1882,  and 
developed  clairvoyant  powers  of  a  very  remarkable 
kind.  Dr.  Wiltse  unfortunately  took  no  notes  at  the 
time  of  the  experiments,  but  he  appears  to  be  an 
accurate  reporter,  and  it  will  be  seen  that  his  account 
of  the  incidents  quoted  is  confirmed  in  each  case  by 
other  observers.  The  first  experiment  was  recorded 
with  others  in  1886,  in  a  paper  read  before  the  Owosso 
Academy  of  Medicine;  the  second  was  not  apparently 
written  down  until  the  account  was  sent  to  us  in 
1890:— 

1  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  such  an  interpretation  in  no  way 
reflects  upon  the  good  faith  of  the  hypnotics  Hints  derived  from 
conversation  overheard  unconsciously  might  be  quite  sufficient. 


ON   CLAIRVOYANCE   IN   TRANCE.  343 

"  Miss  Florence  F.,  now  Mrs.  R.,  a  neighbour,  was  invited  to 
attend  one  evening  with  tests  which  she  was  to  arrange  during 
the  day.  She  came  and  told  the  subject  to  go  to  her  kitchen 
and  tell  her  what  she  saw.  It  was  about  twenty  rods  to  Miss 
F.'s  kitchen.  Subject  was  led  to  suppose  she  had  gone  to  the 
kitchen,  and  being  asked  what  she  saw,  readily  answered :  *  The 
table  sits  in  the  centre  of  the  room,  and  upon  it  is  a  box 
covered  with  a  cloth.'  *  What  is  in  the  box,  Fannie?'  I  asked. 
'Oh,  I  daren't  look  in  the  box  !  Miss  Florence  might  be  mad.' 
'Miss  Florence  is  willing  you  should  look;  raise  the  cloth, 
Fannie,  and  tell  me  what  is  there.'  She  immediately  answered, 
'There  are  seven  loaves  of  bread  and  sixteen  biscuits  in  it.1 
(Correct.) 

"  I  set  this  down  as  telepathy  because  Miss  Florence  F.  was 
in  the  room,  and  undoubtedly  the  facts  were  prominently  in  her 
mind,  having  been  purposely  so  arranged  by  her  for  a  test ;  but 
what  follows  is  not  so  plainly  telepathy. 

"  Miss  Florence  asked  Fannie  to  tell  her  what  was  in  her 
stable.  She  answered,  '  Two  black  horses,  one  grey  horse,  and 
one  red  horse'  (meaning  a  bay  horse).  Miss  Florence:  'That 
is  wrong,  Fannie ;  there  are  only  my  black  horses  in  the  stable.' 
Ten  or  fifteen  minutes  later,  a  brother  of  Miss  Florence  came  to 
the  house  and  told  Miss  Florence  that  there  were  travellers  at 
the  house,  and  upon  inquiry  we  learned  that  the  grey  and  '  red ' 
horse  belonged  to  them,  and  that  they  had  been  in  the  stable 
half-an-hour  when  Fannie's  clairvoyant  eye  scanned  it." 

Mrs.  Roberts,  the  Miss  Florence  F.  of  the  narrative, 
writes  to  Dr.  Wiitse: — 

"  CARDIFF,  TENN.,  January  is///,  1891. 

"Your  letter  was  received  late  last  night,  and  I  hasten  to 
reply.  Your  statement1  is  correct  as  far  as  it  goes.  But  if  you 
remember  we  asked,  or  rather  you  asked  Fannie,  to  go  into 
our  store-room  and  see  what  was  in  there,  and  she  said  a  hind 
quarter  of  beef,  which  was  true,  we  had  got  it  late  that  evening. 
You  also  asked  her  to  go  in  the  kitchen  and  see  how  many 
loaves  of  bread  she  could  find,  which  she  told,  and  on  counting 
them  after  returning  home,  she  was  correct.  It  was  in  the 
winter  of  '81  or  '82,  I  think,  either  December  '81,  or  in  the 
January  or  February  of  '82,  I  cannot  remember  the  month ;  I 
know  it  was  cold  weather  If  you  remember  when  old  Julian 

1  The  statement  sewt  to  Mrs.  Roberts  was  substantially  a  copy  of  the 
last  nine  lines  only  of  the  preceding  account,  No  reference  was  made 
to  the  visit  to  the  kitchen. 


344  APPARITIONS  AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

Scott  was  drowned,  it  was  about  that  time,  for  if  I  remember 
right  you  were  trying  that  same  night  to  get  her  to  find  his 
body.  I  think,  as  well  as  I  remember,  that  she  located  his 
saddle,  and  a  few  days  after  it  was  found  in  a  place  that  she 
described,  but  she  could  not  find  the  body. 

"  MRS.  FLORENCE  F.  ROBERTS." 

In  the  second  of  the  incidents  above  described,  and 
in  the  account  which  follows,  the  percipient's  state- 
ments included  facts  which  were  not  within  the  know- 
ledge of  any  of  those  present,  and  we  are  forced  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  percipient  in  some  way  derived 
her  knowledge  from  persons  at  a  distance.  The  case 
presents  a  curious  experimental  parallel  to  the  dream 
(No.  60)  recorded  in  Chapter  VIII.,  and  to  case  No. 
107  below.  In  the  present  instance,  however,  the  per- 
sons whom  we  may  perhaps  call  the  agents,  though 
unconscious  of  their  agency  in  the  matter,  do  not 
appear  to  have  been  personally  unknown  to  the 
percipient 

No.  ioi.— From  DR,  WILTSE. 

u  Mr.  Howard  lived  six  miles  from  me.  He  had  just  built 
a  large  frame  house;  our  subject  had  never  seen  the  house, 
although,  I  presume,  she  may  have  heard  it  talked  of.  '  Mr. 
Howard  had  not  been  home  for  some  days,  and  asked  that 
Fannie  should  go  there  and  see  if  all  were  well.  She  exclaimed 
at  the  size  of  the  house,  but  railed  at  the  ugliness  of  the  front 
fence,  saying  she  would  not  have  *  such  an  old  torn-down '  fence 
in  front  of  so  nice  a  house.  *  Yes,'  said  Howard,  laughing,  *  my 
wife  has  been  worrying  the  life  out  of  me  about  the  fence  and 
the  front  steps.'  '  Oh,'  interrupted  Fannie,  *  the  steps  are  nice 
and  new  1 '  '  She  is  off  there,'  said  Howard,  *  the  steps  are 
worse  than  the  fence.'  *  Don't  you  see/  exclaimed  Fannie, 
impatiently,  *  how  new  and  nice  the  steps  are  ?  Humph  ! ' 
(And  she  seemed  absolutely  disgusted,  judging  by  the  tone.) 
'  I  think  they  are  real  nice.' 

"Changing  the  subject,  Howard  asked  her  how  many 
windows  were  in  his  house.  Almost  instantly  she  gave  a 
number  (I  think  it  was  twenty-six).  Howard  thought  it  was 
too  many,  but  upon  carefully  counting,  foun£  it  exact. 

"  From  my  house  he  went  directly  home,  and,  to  his  great 
surprise,  found  that  during  his  absence  his  wife  had  employed 


ON   CLAIRVOYANCE   IN   TRANCE.  34$ 

a  carpenter  who  had  built  new  front  steps,  and  they  had 
been  completed  a  day  or  two  before  Fannie  had  scanned  the 
premises  for  him  with  her  invisible  telescope. 

"  Mr.  Howard's  son,  a  youth,  had  gone  into  an  adjoining 
county  and  was  not  expected  back  for  some  days.  Fannie 
was  acquainted  with  the  young  man  (Andrew).  Mr.  Howard, 
having  business  back  at  the  station,  was  with  us  again  the  next 
night.  His  faith  in  our  'oracle'  had  assumed  larger  propor- 
tions, and  he  suggested  a  visit  home  by  means  of  Fannie's 
wonderful  faculty.  She  described  the  rooms  excellently,  even 
to  a  bouquet  on  one  of  the  tables,  and  said  that  several  young 
people  were  there.  Asked  who  they  were,  she  replied  that  she 
did  not  know  any  of  them  except  Andrew.  *  But,7  I  said, 
'  Andrew  ij  not  at  home.'  Fannie  :  c  Why,  don't  you  see  him  ? ' 
Q.  'Sure,  Fannie?'  F.  '  Oh,  don't  I  know  Andrew?  Right 
there,  he  is.1  Mr.  Howard  returned  home  the  next  morning, 
where  he  found  that  Andrew  had  returned  late  the  day  before, 
and  that  several  young  people  in  the  neighbourhood  had  passed 
the  evening  with  him." 

The  following  are  copies  of  questions  addressed  to 
Mr.  Howard,  and  his  replies  to  them : — 

" '  Did  she  describe  your  new  doorsteps  to  you  before  you 
knew  they  were  built  ?'  '  Yes.' 

"  Question. — '  Did  she  describe  your  house  and  tell  you 
Andrew  was  there  when  you  thought  he  was  away,  and,  if  so, 
was  he  actually  at  home  as  she  stated  ? ' 

"Answer. — *  Yes.' 

"  Question. — '  From  what  you  saw,  were  you  satisfied  that 
Fannie  had,  when  mesmerised,  powers  of  imparting  knowledge 
unknown  to  others  about  her?' 

"Answer. — *  Yes.' 

"WILLIAM  HOWARD, 

Kismet,  Tenn.,  Morgan  Co." 

"  We  testify  to  these  questions,  asked  William  Howard,  to  be 
facts.  We  wer6  present  at  the  same  time  Mr.  Howard  was 
when  Miss  G.  was  mesmerised  by  Dr.  A.  S.  Wiltse.  We 
further  state  that  when  any  of  us  would  prick  the  doctor  with  a 
pin,  she  would  flinch  with  the  same  part  of  her  body.  Miss  G. 
was  not  in  the  habit  of  the  use  of  tobacco.  The  doctor  was  in 
a  different  room,  with  a  wall  between  them.  When  he  would 
smoke,  she  grew  nauseated  and  seemed  to  taste  the  same 
as  he  did.  .» 

"  W.  T.  HOWARD  AND  LIZZIE  HOWARD." 


346  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

No.  102. — From  MR.  WILLIAM  BOYD. 

A  remarkable  case  has  been  recorded,  from  contem- 
porary knowledge,  by  Mr.  William  Boyd,  of  Peterhead, 
N.B.  (Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  vii.  pp.  49  et  seq.}.  The  events 
occurred  as  far  back  as  1850,  but  a  full  account  of 
them  was  contributed  by  Mr.  Boyd  to  the  Aberdeen 
Herald  for  May  8th  and  i8th  of  that  year,  from  which 
it  appears  that  the  statements  made  by  the  percipient 
were  written  down  and  communicated  to  Mr.  Boyd 
and  others  before  their  correspondence  with  the  facts 
was  known.  The  incident  attracted  much  notice  at 
the  time,  from  its  connection  with  the  whaling  fleet, 
the  chief  topic  of  local  interest.  The  following  is  an 
extract  from  the  original  notes  made  by  Mr.  Reid, 
the  hypnotiser,  published  in  the  Aberdeen  Herald^ 
May  i8th,  1850: — 

"  On  the  evening  of  April  22nd  I  put  John  Park,  tailor,  aged 
twenty-two,  into  a  state  of  clairvoyance,  in  presence  of  twelve 
respectable  inhabitants  of  this  town.  (Here  follows  a  description 
of  certain  statements  regarding  the  fate  of  Franklin's  expedition 
and  the  ships  Erebus  and  Terror  >  which  in  the  light  of  informa- 
tion subsequently  received  proved  to  have  been  inaccurate.) 
He  (the  clairvoyant)  then  visited  Old  Greenland,  as  was 
desired,  and  having  gone  on  board  the  Hamilton  Ross,  a  whale- 
ship  belonging  to  this  port,  saw  David  Cardno,  second  mate, 
getting  his  hand  bandaged  up  by  the  doctor  in  the  cabin,  having 
got  it  injured  while  sealing.  He  was  then  told  by  the  captain 
that  they  had  upwards  of  100  tons  of  oil.  I  again,  on  the  even- 
ing of  the  23rd,  put  him  into  a  clairvoyant  state.  (Here  follow 
some  further  particulars  regarding  Sir  John  Franklin's  expedi- 
tion, which  also  are  proved  to  have  been  inaccurate.)  I  again 
directed  him  to  Old  Greenland,  and  he  again  visited  the 
Hamilton  Ross^  and  found  Captain  Gray,  of  the  Eclipse^  con- 
versing with  the  captain  about  the  seal  fishing  being  up. 

"(Signed)       WILLIAM  REID." 

It  appears  from  the  Herald  of  May  8th  that  the 
Hamilton  Ross  did  come  to  port  first  out  of  eleven 
ships,  that  she  brought  159  tons  of  oil,  that  Cardno 
had  injured  his  hand,  and  arrived  with  his  arm  in 


ON   CLAIRVOYANCE  IN   TRANCE.  347 

a  sling,  and  that  on  the  23rd  April  the  captain  of  the 
Hamilton  Ross  was  conversing  with  the  captain  of  the 
Eclipse.  Mr.  Boyd  points  out,  however,  that  Cardno 
had  some  years  before  lost  the  tip  of  one  finger,  so 
that  the  clairvoyant's  statement  of  the  accident  may 
have  been  simply  a  reminiscence.  It  is  worth  noting 
that  here,  as  generally  in  visions  of  the  kind,  the  false 
was  mingled  with  the  true,  and  that  the  percipient 
appears  quite  unable  to  distinguish  between  pictures 
which  arc  obviously  the  work  of  his  own  imagination, 
and  those  which  are  apparently  due  to  inspiration 
from  without. 

The  next  case  is  also  remote  in  date,  but  we  have 
received  the  evidence  of  several  persons  still  living 
who  were  conversant  with  the  facts  at  the  time  of  their 
occurrence,  and  the  account  given  below  is  taken  from 
contemporary  notes.  "  Jane >}  was  the  wife  of  a  pit- 
man in  County  Durham,  who  for  many  years,  from 
1845  onwards,  was  hypnotised  for  the  sake  of  her 
health  by  Mrs.  T.  Myers,  of  Twinstead  Rectory,  Mrs. 
Fraser,  her  sister,  and  other  members  of  the  same 
family.  In  the  hypnotic  sleep  she  appears  to  have 
been  sensible  to  telepathic  influences  of  the  same  kind 
as  those  described  at  the  beginning  of  Chapter  III. 
But  she  also  gave  remarkable  demonstrations  of 
"  travelling  clairvoyance,"  and  frequently  described 
correctly  the  interior  of  houses  she  had  never  seen. 
Occasionally  she  went  beyond  this,  and  stated  facts 
not  within  the  knowledge  of  those  present,  and 
opposed  to  their  preconceptions.  A  good  instance  is 
the  following,  taken  from  notes  made  in  the  summer 
of  1853:— 

No,   103. — From  DR.  F.1 

"Before  commencing  the  sitting,  I  fixed  to  take  her  to  a 
house,  without  communicating  my  intentions  to  any  of  the 

1  Dr.  F.,  who  is  stilV living,  is  disinclined  to  have  his  name  published, 
as  he  does  not  wish  to  be  troubled  with  correspondence  on  the  subject. 


348  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

parties  present.  In  the  morning  of  the  day  I  stated  to  a  patient 
of  my  own,  Mr.  Eglinton,  at  present  residing  in  the  village  of 
Tynemouth,  that  I  intended  to  visit  him.  He  stated  that  he 
would  be  present  between  8  and  10  P.M.  in  a  particular  room,  so 
that  there  might  be  no  difficulty  in  finding  him.  He  was  just 
recovering  from  a  very  severe  illness,  and  was  so  weak  that  he 
could  scarcely  walk.  He  was  exceedingly  thin  from  the  effects 
of  his  complaint. 

"  After  the  usual  state  had  been  obtained,  I  said,  *  We  are 
standing  beside  a  railway  station,  now  we  pass  along  a  road, 
and  in  front  of  us  see  a  house  with  a  laburnum  tree  in  front  of 
it.'  She  directly  replied,  'Is  it  the  red  house  with  a  brass 
knocker?1  I  said,  '  No,  it  has  an  iron  knocker.'  I  have  since 
looked,  however,  and  find  that  the  door  has  an  old-fashioned 
brass  handle  in  the  shape  of  a  knocker.  She  then  asked, '  Shall 
we  go  up  the  steps  ?  Shall  we  go  along  this  passage,  and  up 
these  stairs  ?  Is  this  a  window  on  the  stair-head?'  I  said, 
*  You  are  quite  right,  and  now  I  want  you  to  look  into  the  room 
upon  the  left-hand  side.'  She  replied,  'Oh,  yes,  in  the  bed- 
room. There  is  no  one  in  this  room  ;  there  is  a  bed  in  it,  but 
there  is  no  person  in  it.'  I  was  not  aware  that  a  bedroom  was 
in  the  place  I  mentioned,  but  upon  inquiry  next  day  I  found  she 
was  correct.  I  told  her  she  must  look  into  the  next  room,  and 
she  would  see  a  sofa.  She  answered,  '  But  there  is  here  a  little 
gallery.  Now  I  am  in  the  room,  and  see  a  lady  with  black  hair 
lying  upon  the  sofa.'  I  attempted  to  puzzle  her  about  the  colour 
of  her  hair,  and  feeling  sure  it  was  Mr.  Eglinton  who  was  lying 
there,  I  sharply  cross-questioned  her,  but  still  she  persisted  in 
her  story.  The  questioning,  however,  seemed  to  distract  her 
mind,  and  she  commenced  talking  about  a  lady  at  Whickham, 
until  I  at  last  recalled  her  to  the  room  at  Tynemouth,  by  asking 
whether  there  was  not  a  gentleman  in  the  room.  '  No,'  she 
said;  '  we  can  see  no  gentleman  there.' 

"  After  a  little  she  described  the  door  opening,  and  askedt 
with  a  tone  of  great  surprise, '  Is  that  a  gentleman  ?'  I  replied, 
'Yes;  is  he  thin  or  fat"?'  'Very fat,'  she  answered;  'but  has 
he  a  cork  leg  ? '  I  assured  her  that  he  had  no  cork  leg,  and 
tried  to  puzzle  her  again  about  him.  She,  however,  assured  me 
that  he  was  very  fat  and  had  a  great  corporation,  and  asked  me 
whether  I  did  not  think  such  a  fat  man  must  eat  and  drink  a 
great  deal  to  get  such  a  corporation  as  that.  She  also  described 
him  as  sitting  by  the  table  with  papers  beside  him,  and  a  glass 
of  brandy  and  water.  '  Is  it  not  wine  ? '  I  asked.  '  No,'  she  said, 
'it's  brandy.'  '  Is  it  not  whisky  or  rum?'  '  No,  it  is  brandy,' 
was  the  answer;  '  and  now/  she  continue^,  'the  lady  is  going  to 
get  her  supper,  but  the  fat  gentleman  does  not  take  any.'  I 
requested  her  to  tell  me  the  colour  of 'his  hair,  but  she  only 
answered  that  the  lady's  hair  was  dark.  I  then  inquired  if  he 


ON   CLAIRVOYANCE   IN   tRANCE.  349 

had  any  brains  in  his  head,1  but  she  seemed  altogether  puzzled 
about  him,  and  said  she  could  not  see  any.  I  then  asked  her  if 
she  could  see  his  name  upon  any  of  the  letters  lying  about.  She 
replied,  *  Yes ' ;  and  upon  my  saying  that  the  name  began  with 
E,  she  spelt  each  letter  of  the  name  '  Eglinton.' 

"  I  was  so  convinced  that  I  had  at  last  detected  her  in  a  com- 
plete mistake  that  I  arose,  and  declined  proceeding  further  in 
the  matter,  stating  that,  although  her  description  of  the  house 
and  the  name  of  the  person  were  correct,  in  everything  connected 
with  the  gentleman  she  had  guessed  the  opposite  from  the 
truth. 

"  On  the  following  morning  Mr.  E.  asked  me  the  result  of  the 
experiment,  and  after  having  related  it  to  him,  he  gave  me  the 
following  account : — He  had  found  himself  unable  to  sit  up  to 
so  late  an  hour,  but  wishful  fairly  to  test  the  powers  of  the  clair- 
voyante,  he  had  ordered  his  clothes  to  be  stuffed  into  the  form 
of  a  figure,  and  to  make  the  contrast  more  striking  to  his 
natural  appearance,  had  an  extra  pillow  pushed  into  the  clothes 
so  as  to  form  a  '  corporation.'  The  figure  had  been  placed  near 
the  table,  in  a  sitting  position,  and  a  glass  of  brandy  and  water 
and  the  newspapers  placed  beside  it.  The  name,  he  further 
added,  was  spelt  correctly,  though  up  to  that  time  I  had  been  in 
the  habit  of  writing  it '  Eglington,'  instead  of  as  spelt  by  the 
clairvoyante,  '  Eglinton.' " 

In  this  case  it  will  be  seen  that  the  only  person 
from  whom  knowledge  of  the  facts  given  could  have 
been  derived  was  personally  unknown  to  the  per- 
cipient, the  only  apparent  link  of  connection  being 
their  common  acquaintance  with  Dr.  F. 

In  the  last  case  to  be  mentioned  there  are  again 
some  indications  of  thought-transference  from  the 
mind  of  a  person  at  a  distance.  On  April  8th,  1890, 
Dr.  Backman,  at  Kalmar,  received  a  letter  from  Dr. 
Kjellman,  at  Stockholm,  asking  that  on  the  following 
day  Dr.  Backman  should  request  one  of  his  subjects, 
Alma  Radberg,  to  "find"  Dr.  von  B.  (known  to 
Alma),  and  describe  the  apartment  (Dr.  Kjellman's 
own)  in  which  he  would  be  sitting,  adding  that  some- 
thing would  be  hung  on  the  chandelier  for  her  to 

describe.      The    percipient    in    the    trance    gave    a 

• 

1  On  a  previous  occasira  she  had  described  a  skull  in  a  surgery  as  a 
head,  but  "not  a  live  head,  and  with  no  brains  in  it." 


350  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

description  of  the  room,  and  when  asked  to  look  at  the 
chandelier  she  said  there  was  no  chandelier,  some- 
thing more  like  a  lamp,  and  described  something  long 
and  narrow,  of  white  metal,  hanging  from  it,  with 
some  red  stuff  round  it.  When  awake  she  said  that 
what  she  saw  was  probably  a  pair  of  scissors  for  cut- 
ting paper,  or  a  paper-knife.  Dr.  Backman  sent  his 
notes  to  Dr.  Kjellman,  who  replied,  showing  that  the 
description  of  the  room,  though  in  some  respects 
accurate  (e.g.,  she  mentioned  a  long  stuffed  easy-chair, 
a  glass  bookcase,  three  doors  in  the  lobby,  etc.),  was 
in  other  features  incorrect,  and  should  on  the  whole 
be  regarded  as  inconclusive.  "  But,"  he  adds,  "  her 
statement  that  the  object  was  hanging  in  a  lamp,  not 
a  chandelier,  was  right.  It  is  both  a  lamp  and  a 
chandelier,  and  the  lamp  was  drawn  down  a  long  way 
under  the  chandelier,"  and  that  the  object  hanging 
there  was  "  a  large  pair  of  paper  scissors,  fixed  by  an 
india-rubber  otoscope,  and  with  a  tea-rose  and  some 
forget-me-nots  in  one  of  the  handles  of  the  scissors." 
It  will  thus  be  seen  that  on  the  one  point  to  which 
her  attention  had  been  specially  directed,  the  hyp- 
notic's description  was  strikingly  accurate;  and  the 
articles  described  were  hardly  within  the  range  of 
conjecture. 

Dr.  Backman  has  made  other  experiments  with  the 
same  subject,  in  which  he  obtained  further  indications 
of  clairvoyance  of  this  kind.  (Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  vii.  p. 
207,  etc.) 


CHAPTER  XV. 

ON   CLAIRVOYANCE   IN   THE    NORMAL   STATE. 

THERE  is  probably  no  sharp  line  to  be  drawn  between 
the  cases  just  described  and  those  to  be  dealt  with  in 
the  first  part  of  the  present  chapter.  Both  present 
the  common  feature  that  the  percipient  receives  a 
clear  and  detailed  telepathic  impression  of  an  incident 
or  scene  in  the  experience  of  some  other  person,  and 
in  both  the  condition  of  that  impression  is  manifestly 
not  an  effort  of  attention  or  an  exceptional  state  on 
the  part  of  the  person  whose  experience  is  thus  repre- 
sented, but  a  specially  stimulated  receptivity  on  the 
part  of  the  percipient.  But  in  some  cases  the  con- 
ditions of  this  special  receptivity  are  found  in  trance, 
whilst  in  others  the  percipient  is  apparently  in  the 
normal  state.  This  would  seem  indeed  to  constitute 
only  a  superficial  difference,  for  in  the  majority  of 
cases  hitherto  observed  the  waking  clairvoyance  does 
not  occur  spontaneously,  but  requires  special  prepara- 
tion for  its  induction,  and  sometimes  the  percipient 
appears  to  pass  into  a  state  resembling  the  earlier 
stages  of  a  hypnotic  trance.  Thus  Mr.  Keulemans, 
the  well-known  scientific  draughtsman,  who  has  had 
many  experiences  of  telepathic  clairvoyance,1  has 
noticed  in  the  course  of  his  work,  which  consists 
largely  of  making  drawings  of  birds  for  lithographic 
reproduction,  that,  in  his  own  words, 

1  Several  instances  ofTOr.  Keulemans'  telepathic  experiences  are  given 
in  Phantasms  of  the  Living  (cases  21,  38,  56,  184). 


AttARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

"  Whenever  strong  impressions  had  got  hold  of  my  mind  they 
had  a  tendency  to  develop  themselves  into  a  vivid  mind-picture 
as  soon  as  my  eye  and  attention  were  concentrated  upon  the  eye 
in  the  drawing;  and  that  whenever  I  began  darkening  the  iris, 
leaving  the  light  speck  the  most  prominent  part,  I  would  slowly 
pass  off  into  a  kind  of  dream-state.  The  mere  act  of  drawing 
the  eye  is  not  enough  to  bring  me  into  this  state,  or  I  should 
experience  such  a  state  at  least  once  a  day,  which  I  do  not. 
But  if  a  strong  mental  impression  takes  hold  of  me  I  begin 
drawing  an  eye.  .  .  .  The  drawing  will  then  convey  to  me  the 
news,  either  in  the  form  of  a  vague,  imperfect  representation  of 
the  person  indicated  in  the  impression,  or  by  a  correct  hallu- 
cinatory picture  of  the  event  as  it  actually  occurred,  both  as 
regards  the  person  and  the  surroundings.  Sometimes  I  cannot 
get  at  the  vision  at  once;  other  thoughts  and  scenes  interfere. 
But  when  I  begin  to  feel  drowsy  I  know  I  shall  have  it  right  in 
a  second ;  and  here  I  lose  normal  consciousness.  That  there  is 
an  actual  loss  of  consciousness  I  know  from  the  fact  that  on  one 
occasion  my  wife  had  been  in  the  room  talking  to  me,  and  not 
receiving  a  reply  thought  that  something  was  wrong  with  me 
and  shook  my  shoulder.  The  shake  brought  me  back  to  my 
waking  state."  (Proc.  S.P.R.>  vol.  viii.  p.  517.) 

But  this  would  seem  to  be  an  extreme  case,  as 
under  ordinary  circumstances  there  is  no  apparent 
loss  of  consciousness ;  and  the  essential  condition 
appears  to  be  freedom  from  interruption  and  preoccu- 
pation. But  the  percipient  generally  finds  it  helpful, 
if  not  absolutely  necessary,  to  employ  a  crystal,  or 
some  other  object,  for  the  full  development  of  the  im- 
pression. The  exact  part  played  by  the  crystal,  glass 
of  water,  shell,  or  other  object,  in  facilitating  the 
hallucination,  it  is  not  easy  to  determine.  In  some 
cases,  no  doubt,  it  acts  by  furnishing  a  point  de  repere^ 
or  nucleus  of  actual  sensation,  round  which  the  hallu- 
cination may  develop.  It  is  probable  also  that  the 
mere  act  of  fixing  the  eyes  on  one  particular  point 
may,  by  shutting  out  other  sources  of  sensation,  help 
to  bring  about  the  state  of  quietude  necessary  for  the 
experiments ;  and  yet  again  it  is  likely  that  the 
intrinsic  virtue  of  the  act,  whatever  that  may  be,  is 
enhanced  by  the  self-suggestion  that  it  will  prove 
beneficial ;  if  indeed  its  virtue  may  not  in  some  cases 


ON   CLAIRVOYANCE   IN   THE   NORMAL   STATE.     353 

be  altogether  due  to  that  cause.  It  should  be  remem- 
bered in  this  connection  that  fixation  of  the  eye  on  a 
small  bright  object  is  one  of  the  readiest  means  of 
inducing  hypnosis.1 


Induced  Clairvoyance. 
No.  104. — From  Miss  X 

Miss  X.,  some  of  whose  experiments  have  already 
been  quoted,  has  been  amongst  the  most  constant 
and  successful  of  crystal  seers.  The  bulk  of  her 
visions,  as  she  has  pointed  out  (Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  v.  p. 
505),  consist  either  of  mere  after-images,  recrudescent 
memories  of  things  seen  and  heard,  or  of  fancy 
pictures  built  out  of  a  rearrangement  of  existing 
materials.  But  occasionally  there  occur  visions  of 
events  then  taking  place,  or  representations  of  the 
past  experience  of  some  friend.  Space  will  not 
permit  of  illustrations  being  given  of  the  first  two 
classes,  though  the  first  especially  has  some  bearing 
on  our  researches.  The  following  account  of  what 
appears  to  have  been  a  telepathic  vision  is  included 
by  Mr.  Myers  in  a  paper  on  the  subliminal  con- 
sciousness (Proc.  S.P.R.y  vol.  viii.  p.  491).  D.  is  the 
friend  mentioned  in  Chapter  V.,  p,  1 22. 

1  It  should  perhaps  be  said  that  there  is  nothing  in  the  experience  of 
the  many  persons  who  have  so  far  tried  crystal  gazing,  at  the  instance 
of  the  S.P.  R.,  to  indicate  risk  of  injury  to  health.  It  is  no  doubt  not 
advisable  for  an  invalid,  or  for  any  one  suffering  from  headache,  or 
undue  fatigue,  to  try  the  experiment.  Indeed,  the  experience  of  Mrs. 
Verrall  and  others  is  that  success  under  such  conditions  is  unattainable. 
But  with  ordinary  care  to  avoid  straining  the  eyes,  no  evil  effect,  it  is 
thought,  need  be  apprehended;  and  there  is  probably  no  form  of 
experiment  which  at  the  cost  of  so  little  trouble  may  be  expected  to 
yield  results  of  so  great  interest  and  value.  There  is  of  course  no 
magic  in  the  crystal ;  a  glass  paper-weight,  a  mirror,  or  a  glass  of  water 
will  serve  the  purpose  equally  well.  Records  of  experiments  will  be 
welcomed  by  Mr.  F.  W.  H.  Myers,  from  whose  suggestive  article  many 
of  the  illustrations  quoted  in  the  text  are  taken.  (See  Proc.,  vol.  viii, 
p.  436,  etc.)  ~ 

23 


354  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

"On  August  loth  of  this  year  [1892]  D.  went  with  her 
family  to  spend  the  autumn  at  a  country  house  which  they  had 
taken  furnished,  and  which  neither  of  us  had  ever  seen.  I  was 
also  away  from  home,  the  distance  between  us  being  at  least 
200  miles. 

"On  the  morning  of  the  I2th  I  received  a  pencil  note  from 
her,  evidently  written  with  difficulty,  saying  that  she  had  been 
very  fiercely  attacked  by  a  savage  dog,  from  which  she  and  our 
own  little  terrier  had  defended  themselves  and  each  other  as 
best  they  could,  receiving  a  score  or  so  of  wounds  between 
them  before  they  could  summon  any  one  to  their  assistance. 
She  gave  me  no  details,  assuming  that,  as  often  happens 
between  us,  I  should  have  received  intimation  of  her  danger 
before  the  news  could  reach  me  by  ordinary  methods. 

"  D.  was  extremely  disappointed  on  hearing  that  I  had  known 
nothing.  I  had  not  consulted  the  crystal  on  the  day  of  the 
accident,  and  had  received  no  intimation.  Begging  her  to  tell 
me  nothing  further  as  to  the  scene  of  her.  adventure,  I  sought 
for  it  in  the  crystal  on  Sunday,  I4th,  and  noted  the  following 
details  : — The  attacking  dog  was  a  large  black  retriever,  and 
our  terrier  held  him  by  the  throat  while  D,  beat  at  him  in  the 
rear.  I  saw  also  the  details  of  D.'s  dress.  But  all  this  I  knew 
or  could  guess.  What  I  could  not  know  was  that  the  terrier's 
collar  lay  upon  the  ground,  that  the  struggle  took  place  upon  a 
lawn  beyond  which  lay  earth — a  garden  bed  probably — over- 
shadowed by  an  aucuba  bush. 

"  On  September  9th  I  had  an  opportunity  of  repeating  all 
this  to  Mr.  Myers,  and  on  the  loth  I  joined  D.  at  their  country 
house.  The  rest  of  the  story  I  give  in  her  own  words  : — 

From  D. 

" c  As  we  were  somewhat  disappointed  that  no  intimation  of 
the  accident  which  had  occurred  to  me  had  reached  Miss  X., 
she  determined  to  try  to  call  up  a  mental  picture  of  the  scene 
where  it  had  occurred,  and  if  possible  to  verify  it  when  visiting 
us  later  on. 

"  '  On  the  night  of  her  arrival  at  C ,  we  were  not  able  to 

go  over  the  whole  of  the  grounds  alone,  and  it  was  therefore 
not  until  the  following  morning  that  we  went  together  for  the 
special  purpose  of  fixing  on  the  exact  spot.  Miss  X.  was  in 
front,  as  I  feared  some  unconscious  sign  of  recognition  on  my 
part  might  spoil  the  effect  of  her  choice.  The  garden  is  a  very 
large  one,  and  we  wandered  for  some  time  without  fixing  on  a 
spot,  the  sole  clue  given  by  Miss  X.  being  that  she  "  could  not 
get  the  right  place,  it  wanted  a  light  bush."  I  pointed  out 
several,  silver  maples,  etc.,  in  various  directions,  but  none  would 
do,  and  she  finally  walked  down  to  the  place  where  the  accident 


ON   CLAIRVOYANCE   IN   THE   NORMAL  STATE.    355 

had  occurred,  close  to  a  large  aucuba  (the  only  one,  I  believe, 
in  the  shrubbery),  and  said,  "  This  must  be  it ;  it  has  the  path 
and  the  grass  and  the  bush,  as  it  should,  but  I  expected  it  to  be 
much  farther  from  the  house." 

" ( I  may  add  that  I  was  not  myself  aware  of  this  bush,  but 
as  I  was  studying  them  all  at  the  time  we  were  attacked  by  the 
dog,  and  as  this  one  is  close  to  the  spot  where  I  was  knocked 
down,  it  seems  possible  that  ;f  was  the  last  I  noticed,  and  it 
may  therefore  have  influenced  ne  more  than  I  knew.' " 

Mr.  Myers  adds  : — 

"  I  understand  that  there  are  a  good  many  acres  of  ground 
round  the  house  in  question,  and  that  the  dog's  attack  was 
made  within  fifty  yards  of  the  house — plainly  an  unlikely  place 
for  a  struggle  so  long  protracted  without  the  arrival  of  help." 

As  the  crystal  picture  was  described  to  Mr.  Myers 
before  its  verification,  there  was  no  room  for  the 
reading  back  of  details  from  the  actual  scene. 

No.  105. — From  Miss  X. 

Miss  X.  has  also  succeeded  on  several  occasions  in 
obtaining  telepathic  information  by  holding  a  shell 
to  her  ear.  Of  one  such  case  she  writes  (ibid^ 
p.  494)  :— 

"On  Saturday,  June  nth,  Mr.  G.  A.  Smith  spent  some  time 
with  us  attempting  some  thought-transference  experiments, 
which  were  fairly  successful,  and  interested  me  greatly.  Mr. 
Smith  left  the  house  soon  after  seven.  After  dinner,  I  took  up 
the  shell  which  had  played  some  part — not  very  successfully — 
in  our  experiments.  What  occurred  is  best  given  in  the 
following  extracts : — 

"'[June  \\th,  1892]  Saturday  Evening,  8.30.    [X.  to  G.  A.  S.] 

" '  Why — when  the  shell  was  repeating  to  me  just  now  what 
you  said  about  clambering  over  rocks  at  Ramsgate — did  it  stop 
suddenly  to  ask,  still  in  your  voice,  "Are  you  a  vegetarian 
then  ?  "  .  .  .  Perhaps  you  dined  at  [your  next  appointment],  and 
declined  animal  food  ?  Do  tell  me  whether  you  are  responsible 
for  this  irrelevance.' 

"  'June  I3/A,  Monday.     [G.  A.  S.  to  X.] 

"  *  .  .  .  Without  cjgubt  the  shell  spoke  the  truth.  ...  As  you 
know,  I  left  you  soon  after  seven.  After  walking  fifteen  minutes 


356"  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

I  suddenly  met  Mr.  M.  .  .  ,  I  was  thinking  about  points  in 
connection  with  the  experiments  we  had  been  engaged  in,  and 
am  afraid  I  did  not  follow  his  remarks  very  closely  .  .  .  but  he 
made  some  allusion  to  little  dishes  at  a  vegetarian  restaurant 
somewhere,  and  immediately  feeling  an  interest  in  the  question 
whether  he  was  a  champion  of  the  vegetarian  cause,  I  inter- 
rupted him  with  " Are yott  a  vegetarian  then?"  I  believe  these 
are  the  exact  words  I  used.  lie  will  be  sure  to  remember 
this,  and  must  be  questioned.' 

"  <Jiine  23rd    [G.  A.  S.  to  X.] 

" ( I  have  to-day  walked  over  the  course  which  I  took  on  June 
nth,  from  [Miss  X.'s  house]  to  the  spot  where  I  met  Mr.  M.  It 
took  just  eleven  minutes.  If  I  left  you  at  7.15,  it  was  probably 
about  7.30,  or  a  very  few  minutes  later,  that  I  put  the  query  to 
Mr.  M.3 " 

Mr.  M.  was  away  from  home,  and  though  at  once  applied  to 
for  corroboration,  did  not  send  a  written  statement  till  June 
22nd,  when  he  writes  to  Mr.  Smith  (after  failing  to  recall  the 
exact  particulars  of  the  previous  conversation) : — 

"The  main  fact  remains  that  you  asked  me,  to  the  best  of  my 
belief— bearing  on  my  strong  praise  of  the  cooking  at  the 
Oxford  Street  Cafe — whether  '  I  was  a  vegetarian.'  That  is  the 
core  of  the  whole  matter,  and  that  is  sound? 

From  Mr.  Smith's  statement  it  would  appear  that 
the  voice  in  the  shell  reproduced  words  actually 
spoken  about  three-quarters  of  an  hour  before.  That 
is,  as  is  very  generally  the  case,  the  clairvoyante 
perceived,  not  the  events  actually  happening  at  the 
moment,  but  events  already  passed  and  chronicled  in 
the  memories  of  those  who  took  part  in  them.  This 
fact,  which  seems  to  have  been  commonly  overlooked 
by  the  earlier  writers  on  the  subject,  is  in  itself  a 
very  strong  argument  for  the  telepathic  explanation 
of  clairvoyance.  Knowledge  of  a  contemporaneous 
scene  might  be  conceived  as  due  to  independent  vision 
on  the  part  of  the  percipient ;  knowledge  of  what  is 
already  past  can  most  readily  be  explained  as  derived 
from  other  minds.1 

1  Of  course  in  this  case  there  is  an  alternative  explanation — viz.,  that 
Miss  X.  received  the  impression  at  the  time^  J:he  words  were  spoken, 
and  that  the  shell  merely  developed  it  for  her  conscious  self. 


ON    CLAIRVOYANCE   IN    THE   NORMAL  STATE.     357 

No.  106. — From  DR.  BACKMAN. 

This  explanation  is  very  clearly  indicated  in  the 
following  case,  quoted  from  the  paper  already  referred 
to  (Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  vii.  p.  216).  Dr.  Backman,  after 
describing  how  occasionally  he  asked  his  subject, 
while  awake,  to  look  in  the  crystal,  writes : — 

11 1  told  the  clairvoyant,  Miss  Olscn,  to  see  in  the  crystal  what 

Miss ,  who  was  present,  had  been  doing  the  night  before. 

After  a  few  moments  she  said  that  she  saw  a  meadow  in  the 
crystal,  and  in  it  a  certain  number  (giving  the  number  correctly) 
of  ladies  and  gentlemen,  who  were  dancing  and  drinking  cham- 
pagne. This  seemed  to  her  very  improbable,  because  it  was 
then  November,  a  season  that  is  not  chosen  in  this  country 
[Sweden]  for  picnics.  She  described  minutely  several  other 
things  which  were  not  written  down,  but  were  quite  correct, 
according  to  what  Miss said  later  on." 

In  a  letter  dated  December  iQth,  1890,  Dr.  Backman 
adds: — 

"  Several  persons  were  present.  No  notes  were  taken,  but  the 
story  made  so  much  sensation  that  it  has  not  been  forgotten. 

Miss supplemented  the  account  to-day  by  reminding  me 

that  on  looking  into  the  crystal  Miss  Olsen  first  gave  a  perfect 

description  of  a  lady  with  whom  Miss had  talked  on  meeting 

her  in  the  street  the  day  before;  she  described  her  face,  her 
dress,  etc.,  very  accurately,  and  said  besides  that  she  had  two 
gold  rings  on  the  fourth  finger  of  her  left  hand  (a  sign  of 
marriage).  After  that  Miss  Olsen  suddenly  began  to  laugh  and 

said  :  '  Miss is  in  a  merry  company — they  are  dancing — 

the  corks  of  the  champagne  bottles  are  jumping/  etc.  Miss  — - — 
cannot  remember  that  any  wrong  detail  was  given  by  Miss 
Olsen,  except  that  she  thinks  the  number  of  persons  present  was 
not  correctly  given." 

With  Dr.  Backman's  permission  we  wrote  to  Miss 
asking  for  her  confirmation  of  these  incidents, 


and  she  replied  as  follows,  on  March  8th,  1891 : — 

"  I  am  very  willing  to  give  you  a  description  of  what  I  saw  and 
heard  at  Dr.  Backman's  the  day  he  has  mentioned  in  his  letter 
to  you. 

"  When  I  came  toTiim,  he  made  a  hypnotic  experiment  with 
Miss  Olsen,  who  should  endeavour  to  find  some  papers  lying 


358  APPARITIONS   AND    THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

somewhere  in  Dr.  Backman's  apartment,  and,  to  my  great 
surprise,  she  succeeded  in  finding  them.  After  her  being 
awakened,  Dr.  Backman  gave  her  a  large  glass  button  and 
asked  her  to  look  in  it  and  see  if  she  could  find  out  what  I  had 
done  the  day  before.  She  succeeded  even  in  this  to  anastonish- 
ing  degree." 

No.  107. — From  SIR  JOSEPH  BARNEY. 

In  the  next  case,  however,  the  vision  appears  to 
have  been  as  nearly  as  possible  contemporaneous  with 
the  event.  Miss  A.  is  a  lady  who  has  had  many 
telepathic  experiments  of  a  striking  kind.  She  is 
extremely  short-sighted  and  a  bad  visualist,  but  her 
crystal  visions  she  describes  as  being  clear  and  well 
defined,  as  if  she  were  looking  on  a  real  scene  through 
strong  glasses.  The  following  account  of  an  incident 
in  Miss  A/s  experience  is  given  by  Sir  Joseph 
Barnby,  who  was  a  witness  before  the  verification. 
His  account  has  been  revised  throughout  by  Lady 
Radnor,  who  has  interpolated  an  explanatory  note. 
Sir  Joseph  writes,  in  November  1892  : — 

"I  was  invited  by  Lord  and  Lady  Radnor  to  the  wedding  of 
their  daughter,  Lady  Wilma  Bouverie,  which  took  place  August 
1 5th,  1889. 

"  I  was  met  at  Salisbury  by  Lord  and  Lady  Radnor  and 
driven  to  Longford  Castle.  In  the  course  of  the  drive,  Lady 
Radnor  said  to  me  :  |  We  have  a  young  lady  staying  with  us  in 
whom,  I  think,  you  will  be  much  interested.  She  possesses  the 
faculty  of  seeing  visions,  and  is  otherwise  closely  connected 
with  the  spiritual  world.  Only  last  night  she  was  looking  in  her 
crystal  and  described  a  room  which  she  saw  therein,  as  a  kind 
of  London  dining-room.  [The  room  described  was  not  in 
London  but  at  L.,  and  Miss  A.  particularly  remarked  that  the 
floor  was  in  large  squares  of  black  and  white  marble— as  it  is 
in  the  big  hall  at  L.,  where  family  prayers  are  said.— H.  M. 
RADNOR.]  With  a  little  laugh,  she  added,  '  And  the  family  are 
evidently  at  prayers,  the  servants  are  kneeling  at  the  chairs 
round  the  room  and  the  prayers  are  being  read  by  a  tall  and 
distinguished-looking  gentleman  with  a  very  handsome,  long 
greybeard.'  With  another  little  laugh,  she  continued :  '  A  lady 
just  behind  him  rises  from  her  knees  and  Speaks  to  him.  He 
puts  her  aside  with  a  wave  of  the  hand,  and  continues  his  read- 


ON   CLAIRVOYANCE   IN   THE    NORMAL  STATE.     3 $9 

ing.'  The  young  lady  here  gave  a  careful  description  of  the 
lady  who  had  risen  from  her  knees.' 

"Lady  Radnor  then  said:  c  From  the  description  given,  I 
cannot  help  thinking  that  the  two  principal  personages  de- 
scribed are  Lord  and  Lady  L.,  but  I  shall  ask  Lord  L.  this  evfen- 
ing,  as  they  are  coming  by  a  later  train,  and  I  should  like  you 
to  be  present  when  the  answer  is  given.1 

"  The  same  evening,  after  dinner,  I  was  talking  to  Lord  L. 
when  Lady  Radnor  came  up  to  him  and  said :  £  I  want  to  ask 
you  a  question.  I  am  afraid  you  will  think  it  a  very  silly  one, 
but  in  any  case  I  hope  you  will  not  ask  me  why  I  have  put  the 
question?'  To  this  Lord  L.  courteously  assented.  She  then 
said :  '  We.e  you  at  home  last  night  ? '  He  replied,  *  Yes.1  She 
said :  '  Were  you  having  family  prayers  at  such  a  time  last  even- 
ing? '  With  a  slight  look  of  surprise  he  replied,  '  Yes,  we  were.' 
She  then  said:  'During  the  course  of  the  prayers  did  Lady  L. 
rise  from  her  knees  and  speak  to  you,  and  did  you  put  her  aside 
with  a  wave  of  the  hand  ? '  Much  astonished,  Lord  L.  answered : 
'  Yes,  that  was  so,  but  may  I  inquire  why  you  have  asked  ^this 
question  ? 3  To  which  Lady  Radnor  answered :  '  You  promised 
you  wouldn't  ask  me  that ! ' ;) 

In  commenting  on  the  account,  Mr.  Myers  adds  : — 

"  This  incident  has  been  independently  recounted  to  me  both 
by  Lady  Radnoi  and  by  Miss  A.  herself.  Another  small  point  not 
given  by  Sir  J.  Barnby  is  that  Miss  A.  did  not  at  first  under- 
stand that  family  prayers  were  going  on,  but  exclaimed  :  *  Here 
are  a  number  of  people  coming  into  the  room.  Why,  they're 
smelling  their  chairs  ! '  This  scene  may  have  been  exactly 
contemporaneous."  (Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  viii.  pp.  502,  503.) 

Spontaneous  Clairvoyance. 

This  incident  was  unquestionably  very  odd,  but  its 
evidential  value  is  not  lessened  by  that  fact.  In- 
stances of  a  similar  detailed  perception  of  events  at  a 
distance  are  occasionally  found  to  occur  spontaneously. 
Two  or  three  cases  coming  under  this  category  have 
indeed  already  been  quoted  in  Chapters  VII.  and  VIIL 
The  type,  however,  is  interesting  arid  important,  and 
it  is  perhaps  worth  while  citing  a  few  more  illustrative 
cases.  It  should  be  noted,  however,  that  whereas  in 
the  cases  of  incTuced  clairvoyance  so  far  considered 
there  is  little  evidence  of  any  active  contribution  on 


360  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

the  part  of  other  persons  to  the  percipient's  impres- 
sion, in  the  majority  of  the  spontaneous  instances  the 
central  figure  in  the  vision  was  undergoing,  or  had 
just  emerged  from,  some  unusual  experience,  and  his 
condition  appears  to  have  contributed  to  bring  about 
the  result.  In  the  case  which  follows  the  vision 
represented  a  dying  man.  It  is  noteworthy  that, 
as  in  other  cases  already  given  (e.g.,  No.  46),  the 
percipient's  impression  presented  a  substantially 
accurate  picture  of  the  scene  of  the  drama,  but  of  a 
scene  which  preceded  its  telepathic  representation  by 
some  hours.  It  seems  probable,  therefore,  that  the 
vision  was  merely  the  reflection  of  the  thoughts  of 
one  of  the  bystanders.  And,  indeed,  in  any  case  it 
would  be  difficult  to  attribute  the  impression  to  the 
mind  of  the  dying  man,  who  could  scarcely  be 
supposed  to  have  a  mental  picture  of  himself  in  the 
act  of  falling  overboard.  In  the  present  instance  it 
does  not  appear  that  the  percipient  was  personally 
acquainted  with  any  of  the  witnesses  of  the  scene, 
amongst  whom,  on  this  interpretation,  the  agent  must 
be  sought,  and  in  this  respect  the  case  presents  a 
parallel  to  Miss  A/s  vision. 

No.  108. — From  MRS.  PAQUET. 

The  case  comes  to  us  through  the  American 
Branch  of  the  S.P.R.  The  evidence  has  been 
prepared  by  Mr.  A.  B.  Wood,  who  received  an 
account  of  the  incident  from  Mrs.  Paquet  at  a 
personal  interview.  Mr.  Wood  writes  on  April  29th, 
1890:— l 

"On  October  24th,  1889,  Edmund  Dunn,  brother  of  Mrs. 
Agnes  Paquet,  was  serving  as  fireman  on  the  tug  Wolf,  a  small 
steamer  engaged  in  ^  to  wing  vessels  in  Chicago  Harbour.  At 
about  3  o'clock  A.M.*,  the  tug  fastened  to  a  vessel,  inside  the 
piers,  to  tow  her  up  the  river.  While  adjusting  the  tow-line 
Mr.  Dunn  fell  or  was  thrown  overboard  by  the  tow-line,  and 
drowne$."  <_ 

.)  vol.  vi.  pp.  33,  34. 


ON   CLAIRVOYANCE  IN   THE  NORMAL  STATE.    361 

Mrs.  PaquePs  Statement. 

"  I  arose  about  the  usual  hour  on  the  morning  of  the  accident, 
probably  about  six  o'clock.  I  had  slept  well  throughout  the 
night,  had  no  dreams  or  sudden  awakenings.  I  awoke  feeling 
gloomy  and  depressed,  which  feeling  I  could  not  shake  off. 
After  breakfast  my  husband  went  to  his  work,  and,  at  the 
proper  time,  the  children  were  gotten  ready  and  sent  to  school, 
leaving  me  alone  in  the  house.  Soon  after  this  I  decided  to 
steep  and  drink  some  tea,  hoping  it  would  relieve  me  of  the 
gloomy  feelings  aforementioned.  I  went  into  the  pantry,  took 
down  the  tea  canister,  and  as  I  turned  around  my  brother 
Edmund — or  his  exact  image — stood  before  me  and  only  a  few 
feet  away.  The  apparition  stood  with  back  towards  me,  or, 
rather,  partially  so,  and  was  in  the  act  of  falling  forward — away 
from  me — seemingly  impelled  by  two  ropes  or  a  loop  of  rope 
drawing  against  his  legs.  The  vision  lasted  but  a  moment, 
disappearing  over  a  low  railing  or  bulwark,  but  was  very 
distinct.  I  dropped  the  tea,  clasped  my  hands  to  my  face,  and 
exclaimed,  '  My  God  !  Ed.  is  drowned.' 

"At  about  10.30  A.M.  my  husband  received  a  telegram  from 
Chicago,  announcing  the  drowning  of  my  brother.  When 
he  arrived  home  he  said  to  me,  'Ed.  is  sick  in  hospital  at 
Chicago  ;  I  have  just  received  a  telegram,'  to  which  I  replied, 
'  Ed.  is  drowned  ;  I  saw  him  go  overboard.'  I  then  gave  him 
a  minute  description  of  what  I  had  seen.  I  stated  that  my 
brother,  as  I  saw  him,  was  bareheaded,  had  on  a  heavy,  blue 
sailor's  shirt,  no  coat,  and  that  he  went  over  the  rail  or  bulwark. 
I  noticed  that  his  pants'  legs  were  rolled  up  enough  to  show  the 
white  lining  inside.  I  also  described  the  appearance  of  the 
boat  at  the  point  where  my  brother  went  overboard. 

"  I  am  not  nervous,  and  neither  before  nor  since  have  I  had 
any  experience  in  the  least  degree  similar  to  that  above  related. 

"  My  brother  was  not  subject  to  fainting  or  vertigo. 

"AGNES  PAQUET." 

Mr.  Paqucfs  Statement. 

"At  about  10.30  o'clock  A.M.,  October  24th,  1889,  I  received 
a  telegram  from  Chicago,  announcing  the  drowning  of  my 
brother-in-law,  Edmund  Dunn,  at  3  o'clock  that  morning.  I 
went  directly  home,  and,  wishing  to  break  the  force  of  the  sad 
news  I  had  to  convey  to  my  wife,  I  said  to  her  :  '  Ed.  is  sick  in 
hospital  at  Chicago  ;  I  have  just  received  a  telegram.'  To 
which  she  replied  :  'Ed.  is  drowned  ;  I  saw  him  go  overboard.1 
She  then  described  to  me  the  appearance  and  dress  of  her 
brother  as  describe?  in  her  statement ;  also  the  appearance  of 
the  boat,  etc. 


362  APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

"  I  started  at  once  for  Chicago,  and  when  I  arrived  there 
I  found  the  appearance  of  that  part  of  the  vessel  described  by 
my  wife  to  be  exactly  as  she  had  described  it,  though  she  had 
never  seen  the  vessel ;  and  the  crew  verified  my  wife's  descrip- 
tion of  her  brother's  dress,  etc.,  except  that  they  thought  that  he 
had  his  hat  on  at  the  time  of  the  accident.  They  said  that  Mr. 
Dunn  had  purchased  a  pair  of  pants  a  few  days  before  the 
accident  occurred,  and  as  they  were  a  trifle  long  before,  wrink- 
ling at  the  knees,  he  had  worn  them  rolled  up,  showing  the  white 
lining  as  seen  by  my  wife." 

Visions  of  this  kind  arc  of  rare  occurrence  with 
waking  percipients.  The  preoccupations  of  the  day- 
time are  probably  in  themselves  sufficient  to  prevent 
the  emergence  of  telepathic  impressions  under  ordin- 
ary circumstances.  But  in  the  present  instance  it 
will  be  observed  that  the  vision  occurred  in  an  interval 
of  comparative  rest  after  a  period  of  active  occupation. 
The  feeling  of  gloom  and  depression  mentioned  by 
Mrs.  Paquet  may  have  marked  the  period  of  incuba- 
tion, so  to  speak,  of  a  latent  impression  of  calamity. 
But  a  comparison  of  the  case  with  those  which  follow 
suggests  that  this  feeling  of  depression  may  have 
been  not  the  effect,  but  the  necessary  condition  of  the 
transmission  of  the  agent's  thought,  and  that  a  slight 
degree  of  fatigue  or  ill-health  may  under  certain 
circumstances  facilitate  the  emergence  of  impressions 
of  this  kind.  It  is,  at  all  events,  noteworthy  that  in 
two  of  the  three  cases  quoted  the  percipient  was 
suffering  from  unusual  fatigue  or  depression,  and  in 
the  third  was  recovering  from  a  long  illness.  In  the 
next  two  cases  the  percipient's  experience  may  have 
been  actually  synchronous  with  the  events  perceived. 

No.  109. — From  MR.  F.  A.  MARKS. 

The  accounts,  from  which  extracts  are  given  below, 
were  published  in  the  Oneida  Circular  (U.S.A.)  for 
January  igth,  1874.  The  percipient,  Mr.  F.  A.  Marks, 
writes : — 


ON   CLAIRVOYANCE   IN   THE   NORMAL  STATE.    363 

W.  C.,  January  i^th,  1874. 

"You  wish  the  simple  facts  of  my  dream.  They  are  these: — • 
One  afternoon  in  October  [1873],  being  tired,  I  lay  d6wn  to  rest. 
I  soon  fell  asleep ;  at  least  I  have  no  reason  for  thinking  that  I 
did  not  sleep.  I  was  not  on  the  bed  more  than  a  few  minutes. 
During  this  time  I  dreamed  of  being  near  a  large  body  of 
water.  I  knew  it  to  be  the  Oneida  Lake.  The  wind  was  blowing 
violently,  and  the  waves  ran  exceedingly  high.  While  standing 
near  the  lake  I  felt  under  a  strong  disposition  to  sleep.  My 
eyes  were  heavy,  they  would  close  themselves.  It  was  with  an 
exertion  that  I  kept  them  open.  I  was  like  a  man  under  night- 
mare ;  struggling  to  rouse  myself,  yet  only  partially  successful. 
Darkness  vas  settling  over  me.  Suddenly,  when  the  wind  was 
blowing  a  gale  and  the  waves  seemed  rolling  one  over  the  other, 
a  small  sail-boat  broke  upon  my  sight,  driven  wildly  before  the 
storm.  For  the  moment  it  seemed  as  if  it  would  be  lost.  It 
appeared  to  be  at  the  mercy  of  the  waves,  for  they  rose  high 
above  its  sides  and  almost  concealed  it  at  times.  It  was 
manned  by  two  persons — one  in  the  after  part ;  the  other  trying 
to  pull  down  the  sail !  Their  situation  was  critical.  At  this 
moment  a  feeling  of  horror  shot  through  me  as  I  recognised  in 
the  man  whose  full  length  I  saw  standing  near  the  mast  and 
struggling  with  the  sail  my  brother  Charles  !  The  man  in  the 
stern  I  did  not  recognise.  In  the  time  of  the  greatest  peril, 
something— I  can  scarcely  tell  what;  I  dare  not  call  it  an 
apparition — gave  me  the  impression  that  good  beings  were 
interested  and  watchful  over  the  voyagers. 

"  The  shock  I  received  on  seeing  my  brother  did  not  allow  me 
to  sleep  long.  On  awaking  I  was  troubled,  and  thought  I  would 
immediately  write  to  Charles,  entreating  him  to  be  careful. 
Afterwards,  thinking  it  merely  a  dream,  I  turned  my  attention 
from  writing,  but  I  mentioned  to  Frank  Smith  that  I  had  a 
troubled  dream  about  Charles.  After  this  experience,  perhaps 
three  or  four  days,  a  letter  was  received  from  Mrs.  Maliory 
giving  an  account  of  Charles'  condition  when  he  returned  to  the 
joppa  station. 

"  This  letter  recalled  the  dream ;  and  the  coincidence  of  time 
and  circumstances  made  a  deep  impression  on  me,  though  I  was 
unable  then,  and  am  now,  to  accurately  identify  the  time  of  my 
vision  with  the  time  of  actual  peril  described  in  Mrs.  Mallory's 
letter.  (The  letter,  however,  came  so  soon  as  to  make  it  certain 
that  the  peril  and  the  vision  were  nearly,  if  not  exactly,  simul- 
taneous.}" 

Mr.  C.  R.  Ma»ks  explains  that  on  a  beautiful  day 
in  October  he  a»d  a  friend  sailed  eighteen  miles  down 
the  lake  in  a  small  open  boat  They  started  for  the 


364  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

return  voyage  on  the  day  following,  at  2.45  P.M.,  in 
threatening  weather.  They  had  gone  but  a  short 
distance  when  a  violent  storm  came  on,  and  they  were 
in  a  position  of  considerable  peril : — 

"  To  add  to  our  apprehensions  it  began  raining,  and  the  wind 
instead  of  slacking  was  evidently  increasing.  We  had  gone 
about  two  miles  when  I  was  startled  by  a  cry  from  Arthur  to 
'look  out  for  the  sail  !'  as  it  was  shifting  to  the  other  side.  I 
lay  down  to  let  the  sail  pass  over  me,  and  got  on  to  the  other 
side  of  the  boat  to  counteract  the  effect  of  the  sail.  This  is  told 
in  a  few  words,  but  the  actual  event  seemed  to  take  a  long 
time.  When  down  in  the  boat  I  heard  and  felt  the  swash  of  the 
waves  coming  in,  and  for  a  moment  I  had  the  impression  that 
Arthur  was  already  in  the  water  and  that  it  would  soon  be  my 
turn.  But  on  looking  round  I  saw  he  was  still  in  his  place,  and 
also  that  we  had  shipped  considerable  water.  The  next  thing 
was  to  take  in  sail,  and  that  quickly.  I  let  go  the  halyards,  but 
the  sail  would  not  come  down,  as  it  was  held  by  a  miserable 
toggle  at  the  top.  In  the  excitement  of  the  moment  I  jumped 
upon  the  seat  at  the  imminent  risk  of  capsizing  the  boat,  and 
pulled  down  the  sail  as  far  as  it  would  go,  which  left  it  about 
six  feet  high.  This  was  still  dangerous,  as  the  slack  of  the  sail 
was  distended,  looking  like  a  huge  bag  This  was  remedied  by 
cutting  away  the  rings  in  the  lower  part  of  the  sail  and  winding 
up  the  lower  yard.  After  this,  with  considerable  baling,  we  got 
along  tolerably  well." 

Appended  is  an  extract  from  a  letter  written  by 
Mr.  B.  Bristol,  with  whom  Mr.  F.  A.  Marks  was 
working  at  the  time  of  the  vision,  corroborating 
the  accounts  given  above: — 

"  I  was  living  in  Wallingford  at  that  time,  raising  small  fruit. 
My  principal  helper  was  a  young  man  named  Frederic  Marks, 
a  graduate  of  Yale  Scientific  School.  Frederic  had  a  brother 
named  Charles,  who  was  living  then  in  Central  New  York,  near 
Oneida  Lake.  One  rainy  afternoon  Frederic  went  upstairs  to 
his  room  and  lay  down  on  a  lounge.  An  hour  or  so  after  he 
came  back  and  said  he  had  just  seen  his  brother  Charles  in 
vision,  he  thought,  as  he  was  not  conscious  of  having  been 
asleep.  Charles  was  in  a  small  sail-boat,  and  a  companion 
with  him,  who  sat  in  the  stern  steering. ''  There  seemed  to 
be  a  wild  storm  prevailing,  for  the  sea  ran  hr£h.  Charles  stood 
in  the  bow  grasping  the  mast  with  one  arm,  with  the  other  he 


ON   CLAIRVOYANCE   IN   THE   NORMAL  STATE.    365 

had  hold  of  the  boom,  which  appeared  to  have  broken  loose. 
His  dangerous  position  so  frightened  Frederic  that  he  awoke, 
or  the  vision  departed." 

In  the  next  case  the  coincidence  was  not  of  itself  a 
striking  one,  nor,  as  the  account  was  not  sent  to  the 
American  S.P.R.  until  six  years  after  the  event,  is 
the  evidence  as  good  as  in  the  last  narrative.  But 
as  an  incident  in  itself  trivial  has  remained  in  the 
memories  of  the  other  persons  concerned,  as  well  as 
in  that  of  the  percipient,  it  may  be  presumed  to 
have  made  some  impression  at  the  time.  The  case  is 
quoted  from  the  Proceedings  of  the  American  S.P.R. 
(pp.  464-467)- 

No.  i  io.— From  MRS.  L.  Z. 

"June  6th,  1887. 

"About  the  end  of  March  1881,  after  recovering  from 
severe  illness,  while  I  was  yet  confined  to  my  bed,  I  had  the 
following  experience.  I  was  staying  at  the  time  at  172  Benefit 
Street,  Providence,  R.I. 

"  I  had  been  asleep  and  suddenly  became,  as  it  were,  half 
awake,  being  conscious  of  some  of  the  objects  in  the  room.  I 
then  heard  a  voice  as  if  from  the  room  adjoining,  and  made  an 
effort  to  see  the  speaker,  but  I  found  myself  unable  to  move. 
Then  appeared,  as  though  in  a  mist,  an  ordinary  sofa,  and 
behind  it  the  vague  outline  of  a  woman's  figure.  I  did  not 
recognise  the  figure,  but  I  recognised  the  voice  which  I  heard: 
it  was  the  voice  of  my  hostess,  Mrs.  B.,  who  was  at  that  time 
not  in  the  house.  She  was  saying,  *  I  am  ill  and  all  worn  out. 
Mrs.  Z.  has  been  so  nervous,  and  in  such  a  peculiar  mental  state, 
that  it  has  quite  affected  my  health '  (or  words  to  that  effect), 
'but  I  wouldn't  for  the  world  have  her  know  it.'  I  then  made  a 
stronger  effort  to  distinguish  the  figure,  and  woke  completely  to 
find  myself  in  my  room  with  my  nurse.  I  inquired  of  the  nurse 
who  was  in  the  other  room,  which  was  used  as  a  sleeping-room 
by  my  child  and  her  nurse.  She  said  that  no  one  was  there ; 
but  I  was  so  convinced  that  the  voice  had  come  from  there  that 
I  insisted  upon  her  going  and  looking.  She  went,  but  found  no 
one  there,  and  the  door  into  the  hall  was  latched.  I  then 
looked  at  the  clock,  which  was  opposite  my  bed.  It  was  about 
5  P.M.  In  the  evening,  about  8  P.M.,  Mrs.  B.  came  up  to  see 
me,  and  I  asked  hftr  where  she  had  been  that  afternoon  at  5 
o'clock.  She  saidathat  she  had  been  at  Mrs.  G.'s  (about  two 
miles  off).  I  said,  'You  were  talking  about  me.'  She  said, 


366  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

'  Yes,  I  was,'  looking  very  much  surprised.  I  repeated  to  her 
what  I  had  seemed  to  hear  her  say,  word  for  word.  She  was 
much  astonished,  and  was  very  curious  as  to  what  else  I  had 
heard  or  seen.  I  told  her  that  it  was  all  very  vague,  except  the 
appearance  of  the  sofa,  which  I  described  in  detail  as  being 
covered  with  a  peculiar  striped  linen  cloth,  green  stripes  about 
two  inches  wide,  alternating-  with  pale-drab  stripes,  somewhat 
wider,  which  appeared  to  be  the  natural  colour  of  the  unbleached 
linen.  She  said  that  she  had  spoken  the  words  which  I  had 
heard,  and  that  she  was  at  the  time  reclining  on  a  sofa,  but  she 
said  that  the  sofa  was  covered  with  green  velvet. 

"Next  day  Mrs.  G.  paid  me  a  visit,  and  after  hearing  my 
story  she  exclaimed,  'You're  right.  The  sofa  had  at  the  time 
the  covering  which  you  describe;  it  had  just  been  put  on. 
There  is  green  velvet  under  the  covering.  I  suppose  Mrs.  B. 
didn't  notice  the  cover.' ;' 

Mrs.  B.  writes  : — 

"In  the  year  1881,  while  living  in  Providence,  on  Benefit 
Street,  No.  272,  Mrs.  Z.  was  with  me,  and  during  the 
winter  of  1880  and  the  spring  of  1881  she  was  in  a  peculiar 
mental  state,  and  on  two  occasions  read  my  thoughts  and  heard 
my  voice.  I  remember  distinctly  on  one  occasion,  when  I 
returned  from  a  visit  to  a  friend,  Mrs.  Z.  repeated  the  conver- 
sation that  had  passed  between  my  friend  and  myself,  and 
spoke  of  my  lying  on  a  lounge  that  had  a  striped  covering.  I 
said,  '  No,  it  was  a  green  plush,'  but  found  afterwards  she  was 
right,  as  the  summer  covering  had  been  put  on. 

"  ELIZABETH  L.  B. 

"BROOKLYN,  N.Y., ///;/*  1887." 

Mrs.  G.  writes  from  Providence,  July  I2th,  1887  : — 

"When  I  received  your  note  I  could  not  at  all  recall  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  vision  you  referred  to,  but  afterwards  Mrs.  B. 
refreshed  my  memory  upon  the  subject,  and  I  distinctly  recalled 
it.  It  was  as  Mrs.  Z.  related  it  to  you.  At  the  time  it  occurred, 
I  remember,  I  thought  it  quite  marvellous. 

"  Sickness  had  prevented  my  writing  you  these  few  lines 
before.  "  C.  B.  Y.  G." 

Even  if  the  conversation  was  correctly  reported,  it 
is  probably  not  beyond  the  range  of  conjecture  by  a 
morbidly  sensitive  invalid;  but  the  details  given  of 
the  appearance  of  the  sofa  cover  seem  to  indicate  a 
telepathic  faculty,  like  Dr.  Phinuit's;  of  drawing  on 


ON   CLAIRVOYANCE   IN   THE   NORMAL  STATE.    367 

the  agent's  unconscious  perceptions.  Mrs.  L.  Z.  gives 
also  an  account  of  a  voluntarily  induced  clairvoyant 
dream,  in  connection  with  the  same  friend,  which 
occurred  about  this  time,  and  this  account  also  Mrs. 
B.  is  able  to  corroborate.  The  whole  case  is  interest- 
ing as  serving  to  indicate  that  some  conditions  of 
disease  may  be  favourable  to  this  form  ©f  telepathy, 
and  as  being  the  only  case  which  I  am  able  to  quote 
of  spontaneous  clairvoyance  in  which  the  impressions 
transferred  were  of  quite  trivial  incidents.  Mrs.  Z. 
appears  to  have  been  in  a  state  between  sleeping  and 
waking. 

The  next  case  occurred  in  a  dream  at  night.  The 
dream,  it  will  be  noted,  caused  the  percipient  to 
awake. 

No.  iii. — From  MRS.  FREESE. 

"GRANITE  LODGE,  CHISELHURST, 

March  1884. 

"  In  September  1881  I  had  another  curious  dream,  so  vivid 
that  I  seemed  to  see  it. 

"  My  two  boys  of  eighteen  and  sixteen  were  staying  in  the 
Black  Forest,  under  the  care  of  a  Dr.  Fresenius.  I  must  say 
here  that  I  always  supposed  the  boys  would  go  everywhere 
together,  and  I  never  should  have  supposed  that  in  that  lonely 
country,  so  new  to  them,  they  would  be  out  after  dark.  My 
husband  atid  I  were  staying  at  St.  Leonards,  and  one  Saturday 
night  I  woke  at  about  12  o'clock  (rather  before,  as  I  heard  it 
strike)  having  just  seen  vividly  a  dark  night  on  a  mountain,  and 
my  eldest  boy  lying  on  his  back  at  the  bottom  of  some  steep 

Elace,  his  eyes  wide  open,  and  saying,  '  Good-bye,  mother  and 
ither,  I  shall  never  see  you  again.'  I  woke  with  a  feeling  of 
anxiety,  and  the  next  morning  when  I  told  it  to  my  husband, 
though  we  both  agreed  it  was  absurd  to  be  anxious,  yet  he  would 
write  and  tell  the  boys  we  hoped  they  would  never  go  out  alone 
after  dark.  To  my  surprise  my  eldest  boy,  to  whom  I  wrote  the 
dream,  wrote  back  expressing  his  great  astonishment,  for  on 
that  Saturday  night  he  was  coming  home  over  the  mountains, 
past  II  o'clock  ;  it  was  pitch  dark,  and  he  slipped  and  fell  down 
some  12  feet  or  so,  and  landed  on  his  back,  looking  up  to  the 
sky.  However,  he  was  not  much  hurt,  and  soon  picked  himself 
up  and  got  home  $11  right.  He  did  not  say  what  thoughts 
passed  through  his  mind  as  he  fell." 


368  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

In  answer  to  inquiries,  Mrs.  Freese  adds  : — 

"Before  my  son  wrote  about  his  fall  in  the  Black  Forest,  I 
related  my  dream  to  my  husband,  and  as  he  seemed  a  little 
moved  by  it,  I  wrote  an  account  of  it  to  my  boy,  saying  his  father 
did  not  wish  them  to  be  out  after  dark  alone.  I  had  not  told  my 
boy  when  it  was,  deeming  that  immaterial,  but  when  in  his 
letter,  received  days  after,  he  said,  'Was  it  Saturday  night, 
because  then  so-and-so  ? '  I  remembered  what  I  should  not 
otherwise  have  noted,  that  it  was  Saturday  night  ;  for  on  the 
Sunday  morning  my  husband,  being  much  worried  about  some 
business  matter,  elected  to  spend  the  morning  with  me  in  the 
fields  instead  of  going  to  church,  and  as  much  to  divert  his  mind 
as  anything  I  related  to  him  my  dream  of  the  night  before." 

Mrs.  Freese  sent  us  the  letter  from  her  son,  which 
contained  the  following  passage: — 

"  With  regard  to  your  dream :  did  you  dream  it  on  September 
3rd  ?  if  so  it  was  on  that  night,  coming  home  rather  late,  that 
I  fell  down  a  precipice  of  8  feet,  or  perhaps  more,  in  the  dark, 
and  might  have  broken  my  neck,  but  didn't.  However,  I  don't 
think  you  will  find  me  walking  about  after  dark  more  than  I  can 
help,  as  the  roads  are  very  dark,  and  the  fogs  in  the  village 
awful. 

"FRED.  E.  FREESE." 

[September  3rd,  1881,  was  a  Saturday.] 

Mr.  Freese  wrote  on  March  /th,  1884,  to  confirm 
his  wife's  account  of  the  dream. 

An  account  by  Dr.  Gibotteau,  given  in  the  Annales 
des  Sciences  Psychiques,  Nov.-Dec.  1892,  deserves  con- 
sideration in  this  connection.  It  is  the  record  of  a 
series  of  unusually  successful  experiments  in  the 
transfer  of  visual  images.  But  the  success  obtained 
was  apparently  due  to  a  condition  of  spontaneous 
clairvoyant  perceptivity  on  the  part  of  the  subject. 
The  percipient,  who  was  throughout  in  a  state  not 
clearly  distinguishable  from  that  of  normal  wakeful- 
ness,  was  a  head-nurse  at  the  hospital  to  which  Dr. 
Gibotteau  was  attached.  The  occurrence  took  place 
in  1888.  Madame  R.  has  now  remarried  and  Dr. 
Gibotteau  has  lost  sight  of  her,  so  tnat  her  testimony 


ON   CLAIRVOYANCE   IN   THE    NORMAL   STATE.    369 

cannot  be  obtained,  and  unfortunately  Dr.  Gibotteau 
appears  not  to  have  committed  the  incident  to  writing 
until  1892.  The  account  therefore  represents  merely 
the  general  impression  left  after  the  lapse  of  some 
years  upon  the  memory  of  a  trained  observer  by  a  very 
unusual  and  striking  experience.  Briefly,  Dr.  Gibot- 
teau reports  that  he  succeeded  in  inducing  in  Madame 
R.,  by  the  mere  silent  will,  an  immense  number  of 
striking  hallucinatory,  or  rather  semi-hallucinatory 
mental  pictures.  The  ideas  thus  transferred  included 
transformations  and  imaginary  movements  of  objects 
actually  present  in  the  room  ;  the  appearance  of 
human  figures  and  animals,  a  serpent,  a  rabbit,  a 
dog,  horses,  a  bear  rampant ;  and  the  disappearance 
of  Dr.  Gibotteau  himself,  leaving  behind  him  an 
empty  arm-chair.  The  stance  lasted  for  nearly  three 
hours,  with  very  few  failures  of  any  kind,  and  left  the 
narrator  much  exhausted.1 

The  experience,  as  described,  it  will  be  seen,  was  of 
an  almost  unprecedented  kind.  It  is  by  no  means 
clear  that  under  a  natural  classification  either  this  or 
others  of  the  somewhat  heterogeneous  phenomena 
described  in  the  present  and  preceding  chapters  would 
be  grouped  under  the  same  genus,  or  that  any  of 
them  are  rightly  called  telepathic.  They  are  pro- 
visionally ascribed  to  telepathy,  in  the  sense  already 
explained  (p.  326,  Chapter  XIV.),  because  if  we  accept 
the  facts  at  all,  that  appears  to  be  the  cheapest 
solution.  The  writer  is  not  committed  to  telepathy 
as  the  true  explanation;  he  has  adopted  it  provision- 
ally, as  an  alternative  to  some  hypothetical  faculty 
of  direct  intuition  beyond  the  range  of  sense.  If  to 
any  reader  who  accepts  the  writer's  estimate  of  the 
alleged  facts  as  beyond  chance  or  misrepresentation, 
the  hypothesis  of  telepathy  appears  in  such  cases  to 
be  strained,  it  may  be  replied  that  when  the  choice  of 

• 

1  A  translation  of^Dr.  Gibotteau's  account  is  given  by  Mr.  Myers, 
Proc.  S.P.tf.,  vol.  viii.  pp.  468,  469. 

2A 


370  APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

explanation  seems  to  lie  between  telepathy  and  some 
faculty  even  more  dubious  and  more  remote  from 
ordinary  analogies,  it  is  right  that  the  hypothesis  of 
telepathy  should  be  strained — if  necessary,  to  the 
breaking-point — before  we  invoke  a  stage-deity  to  cut 
the  knot. 


371 


CHAPTER  XVL 

THEORIES  AND   CONCLUSIONS. 

CONSIDERATION  more  or  less  adequate  has  now  been 
given  to  the  various  phenomena  in  which  there  is 
proof  apparent  of  the  action  of  telepathy.  The  ex- 
perimental evidence  has  shown  that  a  simple  sensa- 
tion or  idea  may  be  transferred  from  one  mind  to 
another,  and  that  this  transference  may  take  place 
alike  in  the  normal  state  and  in  the  hypnotic  trance. 
It  has  been  shown  also  that  the  transferred  idea 
may  be  reproduced  in  the  percipient's  organism  under 
various  disguises  ;  at  one  time,  for  instance,  it  may 
cause  vague  distress  or  terror,  or  a  blind  impulse  to 
action ;  under  other  circumstances  it  may  inspire 
definite  and  complicated  movements,  as  those  in- 
volved in  writing.  Again,  it  may  induce  sleep  or 
even  more  deep-seated  organic  effects,  such  as  hysteria 
or  local  anaesthesia.  Once  more,  it  may  be  embel- 
lished with  imagery  presumably  furnished  by  the 
percipient's  own  mind,  and  may  appear  as  a  dream 
or  hallucination  representing  the  distant  agent.  And 
these  various  results  may  be  obtained  either  by  delib- 
erate experiment ;  as  the  result  of  some  crisis  affecting 
another  mind  ;  or,  lastly,  as  following  on  some  peculiar 
state  of  receptivity  established,  under  conditions  not 
yet  clearly  ascertained,  in  the  percipient's  mind. 

But  it  would  not  be  reasonable  to  infer  that  the  few 
hundreds  or  thousands  of  examples  collected  during 
the  last  twelve  years  by  a  few  groups  of  investigators 
exhaust  the  rJbssibilities  or  indicate  the  limits  of 
telepathic  action.  By  those,  at  least,  who  accept  the 


372  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

demonstration  of  telepathy  as  a  real  agency  it  will 
hardly  be  anticipated  that  its  action  should  be  con- 
fined to  the  comparatively  few  cases  which  present 
a  coincidence  sufficiently  striking  to  be  quoted  as 
ostensive  instances.  That  the  distribution,  indeed, 
of  telepathic  sensitiveness  at  the  present  time  should 
be  sporadic — as  the  distribution  of  a  musical  ear  or 
the  power  of  visualisation  is  sporadic — may  appear 
not  improbable.  But  we  should  be  prepared  to  find 
instances  of  its  presumptive  operation  which  fall  below 
the  level  of  demonstration,  and  might  with  almost 
equal  plausibility  be  referred  to  some  other  cause. 
And  such  instances  we  do  certainly  find,  in  simul- 
taneous dreams  and  in  vague  presentiments,  and  in 
innumerable  coincidences  of  thought  and  expression 
in  ordinary  life.  And  the  suggestion  that  the  same 
power  may  serve  as  an  auxiliary  to  more  completely 
systematised  modes  of  expression,  though  incapable 
of  proof,  may  yet  be  thought  worthy  of  consideration. 
It  is  conceivable,  for  instance,  that  it  may  aid  the 
intercourse  of  a  mother  with  her  infant  child,  that 
the  influence  of  the  orator  may  be  due  not  only  to 
the  spoken  word,  and  that  even  in  our  daily  con- 
versation thoughts  may  pass  by  this  means  which 
find  no  outward  expression.  The  personal  influence 
of  the  operator  in  hypnotism  may  perhaps  be  regarded 
as  a  proof  presumptive  of  telepathy.  When  all  the 
phenomena  of  "  mesmerism  "  were  attributed,  by  the 
few  who  believed  in  them,  to  the  passage  of  a  fluid 
from  the  mesmerist  to  his  patient,  it  was  easy  to 
credit  the  successful  operator  with  as  large  an  endow- 
ment of  available  fluid  as  the  facts  might  seem  to 
require.  But  from  those  who  assert  that  the  results 
arc  not  merely  explicable,  but  are  in  practice  to  be 
explained,  as  due  to  suggestion  alone,  no  entirely 
satisfactory  explanation  has  ever  been  forthcoming  of 
the  observed  differences  between  one  operator  and 
another.  It  is  difficult  to  believe  *that  Ltebeault, 
Bernheim,  Schrenck-Notzing,  Van  *Eedcn,  Lloyd 


THEORIES   AND  CONCLUSIONS.  3/3 

Tuckey,  Bramwell,  etc.,  have  succeeded  where  so 
many  others  have  failed,  merely  through  the  exercise 
of  greater  patience,  or  the  possession  of  an  established 
reputation,  which  after  all  is  based  on  the  successes 
which  it  is  now  invoked  to  explain.1  And  the  fact  that 
a  large  proportion  of  well- known  hypnotists  have 
acted  as  agents  in  successful  telepathic  experiments 
of  an  unusual  kind  is  a  further  argument  in  the  same 
direction.  There  are,  moreover,  some  more  dubious 
beliefs,  for  the  most  part  discredited  by  educated 
persons,  yet  persisting  with  a  singular  vitality,  which 
receive  in  telepathy  a  simple  and  perhaps  sufficient 
explanation.  It  has  already  been  shown  that  some 
of  the  marvels  of  Dr.  Dee  and  the  Spccularii  have 
been  paralleled  by  recent  visions  in  "the  crystal," 
revealing  events  then  passing  at  a  distance  unknown 
to  the  seer;  and  that  the  nucleus  of  fact  in  some 
legends  of  ghosts  and  haunted  houses  is  probably  to 
be  sought  in  a  telepathic  hallucination.  And  many 
of  the  alleged  wonders  of  witchcraft  and  of  ancient 
magic  in  general,  when  disentangled  from  the  ac- 
cretions formed  round  them  by  popular  myth  and 
superstition,  present  a  marked  resemblance  to  some 
of  the  facts  recorded  in  this  book.  It  is  obvious,  for 
instance,  that  the  same  power  which  inhibited  Mr. 
Beard's  utterance  (p.  83)  could  have  prevented  the 
witch's  victim  from  repeating  the  Lord's  Prayer.  And 
Mr.  Godfrey  (p.  228),  in  the  sixteenth  century,  might 
have  found  that  to  appear  in  two  places  at  once  would 
be  perilously  strong  evidence  of  unlawful  powers.2 

1  The  fact  that  most,  if  not  all,  the  medical  men  quoted  would  them- 
selves reject  the  explanation  hinted  at  in  the  text,  and  would  regard 
their  own  success  as  due  rather  to  skill  and  patience  than  to  any  specific 
endowment,  should,  of  course,  have  due  weight,  but  cannot  be  regarded 
as  decisive. 

2  See  also  the  account  given  by  Dr.  Gibotteau  in  the  Annales  des 
Sciences  Psychiques  of  the  power  possessed  by  Berthe  (see  ante,  p.  139) 
of  causing  people  to  stumble  or  lose  their  sense  of  direction.     Mr. 
Andrew  Lang  has  recently  drawn  attention  to  the  remarkable  resem- 
blances between  acccflmts  of  medieval  magic,  etc.,  and  modern  tele- 
pathic phenomena  (see,  e.g.,  his  article  in  Cont.  Review,  Sept.  1893). 


3/4  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

But  there  are  two  special  kinds  of  marvejs,  whose 
occurrence  has  been  widely  vouched  for  within  quite 
recent  times  by  men  of  proved  ability  and  trained  in 
the  experimental  methods  of  the  modern  laboratory, 
which  deserve  to  be  considered  in  this  connection — 
the  influence  of  metals  and  magnets  on  the  human 
organism,  and  the  physical  phenomena  of  Spiritualism. 
Baron  von  Reichenbach  in  the  last  generation  pub- 
lished the  results  of  numerous  observations  on  various 
sensitives,  who  alleged  that  they  could  see  flame- 
like  emanations  from  crystals,  from  the  poles  of  a 
magnet,  from  the  bodies  of  the  sick,  and  from  newly- 
made  graves,  and  that  they  experienced  various  sen- 
sations from  contact  with  magnets  and  metals.  On 
the  evidence  of  Reichenbach's  prolonged  and  laborious 
researches  the  existence  of  this  supposed  magnetic 
sense  obtained  a  certain  degree  of  credence.  Accord- 
ingly the  S.P.R.,  shortly  after  its  foundation  in  1882, 
conducted  a  series  of  control  experiments  on  a  number 
of  persons  with  a  powerful  electro-magnet,  which  was 
alternately  magnetised  and  demagnetised  by  a  com- 
mutator in  an  adjoining  room.  Of  forty-five  persons 
tested  three  professed  to  see  luminous  appearances 
on  the  poles  of  the  magnet;  and  on  two  or  three 
occasions  they  were  able  to  indicate  with  surprising 
accuracy  throughout  a  whole  evening  the  exact 
moment  at  which  the  current  was  switched  on  or 
off— the  light,  as  they  alleged,  appearing  or  disap- 
pearing simultaneously.  But  these  isolated  successes 
were  not  repeated,  and  the  very  conditions  of  the  ex- 
periment implied  that  it  was  known  to  some  of  those 
present  whether  or  not  the  magnet  was  charged.  Now 
it  is  obvious  that  unless  special  precautions  are  taken 
to  guard  against  the  telepathic1  communication  of 
this  knowledge  all  experiments  of  the  kind  must 
be  inconclusive ;  and  other  investigators  have  failed 

1  It  is  possible  that  we  need  not  go  so  far  as  telepathy  for  an  explana- 
tion. Slight  indications  unconsciously  apprehended  may  have  furnished 
the  necessary  clue  in  all  cases,  as  they  almost  certainly  did  in  some. 


THEORIES   AND   CONCLUSIONS.  375 

to    detect     any     trace    of    the    so-called     magnetic 
sense.1 

Within  the  last  few  years  this  supposed  sensitive- 
ness has  appeared  in  another  form.  M.  Babinski  of 
the  Salpetriere  claims  to  have  shown  that  certain 
ailments — such,  for  example,  as  hemiplegia  and 
hysterical  mutism — can  be  transferred  by  the  in- 
fluence of  a  magnet  from  one  side  of  the  body  to 
another,  or  from  one  patient  to  another.  MM.  Binet 
and  Fere2  find  that  unilateral  hallucinations  can  be 
shifted  by  the  same  influence  from  one  side  of  the 
body  to  the  other,  and  that  in  general  memories  and 
sensations — real  or  imaginary — can  be  modified  and 
destroyed  by  the  magnet.  And  MM.  Bourru,  Burot, 
Luys,  and  others  have  published  whole  treatises  deal- 
ing with  the  alleged  influence  of  various  drugs  and 
metals  on  certain  patients.  A  few  drops  of  laurel- 
water  enclosed  in  a  flask  and  brought  near  to  the 
patient,  will,  according  to  these  writers,  induce 
ecstasy;  ipecacuanha  will  cause  vomiting;  alcohol 
intoxication,  and  so  on ;  each  drug,  though  securely 
stoppered  and  sealed,  giving  rise  to  the  appropriate 
physical  symptoms  in  the  patient.  However,  MM. 
Bernheim,3  Belboeuf,4  and  Jules  Voisin6  showed 
some  time  since,  and  Mr.  Ernest  Hart6  has  lately 
repeated  the  demonstration,  that  the  same  results  can 
be  made  to  follow  if  the  patient  is  led  to  believe  that 
an  inert  piece  of  wood  is  a  magnet,  or  that  an  empty 
flask  contains  a  powerful  drug.  It  may  be  fairly 
assumed  therefore  that  when  special  precautions  are 
not  shown  to  have  been  taken — and  there  is  little 

i  Sec  l^roc.  S.P.R.)  vol.  i.  p.  230,  vol.  ii.  p.  56;  Phil.  Mag.,  April 
1883;  Proc.  Anier.  S.P.R.,  p.  116. 

-  Animal  Magnetism  (International  Science  Series),  pp.  264  et  seq* 
Cf.  Ottolenghi  and  Lombroso,  in  Rev.  Phil.,  Oct.  1889,  on  polarisa- 
tion of  hallucinations  by  magnets. 

3  Rev.  deVHypnotisme,  Dec.  1887. 

4  Ibid.,  June  1887* 

5  Rev.  des  Science*  Hypnotiques,  1887-88,  p.  III. 

6  Brit.  Med.  Journal >  Jan.  1893. 


376  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

evidence  that  such  precautions  were  as  a  rule  taken — 
suggestion  by  word  or  look  would  be  sufficient  to 
account  for  the  phenomena  observed.  But  it  is 
obvious  that  negative  experiments  of  this  kind  are 
not  in  themselves  conclusive;  and  it  is  difficult  to 
believe  that  all  the  results  recorded  by  investigators 
of  such  experience  as  Babinski,  Fe"re*,  and  others 
could  have  been  due  simply  to  carelessness  on  their 
part,  or  hypnotic  cunning  on  the  part  of  the  subject. 
Indeed,  in  commenting  on  the  counter  experiments 
made  by  M.  Jules  Voisin,  MM.  Bourru  and  Burot 
expressly  state  that  if  the  results  obtained  by  them 
are  to  be  attributed  to  suggestion,  as  he  proposes,  it  is 
"  une  suggestion  sans  parole,  sans  geste,  sans  pensfe 
mcme"1  But  a  suggestion  without  word,  gesture,  or 
conscious  thought  is  an  accurate  description  of  one 
form  of  telepathic  suggestion ;  and  if  such  suggestion 
has  indeed  been  at  work  we  have  an  explanation  of 
the  otherwise  inexplicable  reliance  placed  by  these 
French  investigators  upon  experiments  so  much  con- 
troverted, and  their  faith  in  an  interpretation  so  little 
supported  by  scientific  analogy. 

That  in  general  the  so-called  physical  phenomena 
of  Spiritualism  are  due  to  self-deception  and  ex- 
aggeration on  the  one  hand,  and  to  fraud  on  the 
other,  is  a  proposition  which  to  most  readers,  it  is 
likely,  will  seem  to  need  little  demonstration.  And 
there  are  of  course  many  cases,  such  as  the  recent 
experiments  with  Eusapia  Palladino2  at  Milan,  where, 
though  competent  observers — Richet,  Schiaparelli, 
Lombroso,  Brofferio — have  seen  things  beyond  their 
power  to  explain,  yet  the  line  between  what  was 
possible  to  fraudulent  ingenuity  and  what  was  not 


1  Rev.  des  Sciences  Hypnotiques^  1887-88,  p.   151.     See  also  Force 
Psychique  et  Suggestion  Mentale^  by  Dr   Claude  Perronnet,  pp.  21-26, 
who  shows  clearly  how  thought-transference  may  vitiate  many  hypnotic 
experiments.  I 

2  Annales  des  Sciences  Psychiques,  Jan. -Feb.   iC93;  Proc.  S.P.R.% 
vol.  ix.  p.  218. 


THEORIES   AND   CONCLUSIONS.  377 

possible  cannot  be  drawn  with  sufficient  sharpness  to 
warrant  the  invocation  of  any  new  agency.  But 
there  are  other  records  which  cannot  be  so  summarily 
dismissed.  Thus  Mr.  Crookes,  F.R.S.,1  has  described 
the  movements  of  a  balance,  specially  constructed  for 
the  purpose  of  the  experiments,  in  the  presence  of 
himself  and  other  observers,  under  conditions  which 
seemed  to  render  it  impossible  for  the  effects  to  have 
been  produced  by  the  muscular  force  of  any  of  those 
present.  Lord  Lindsay  has  testified  to  having  seen 
Home's  stature  elongated  to  the  extent  of  1 1  inches, 
and  heavy  tables  and  other  articles  of  furniture  rise 
in  the  air  without  visible  support,  and  to  having  him- 
self, at  Home's  instance,  handled,  and  seen  others 
handle,  red-hot  coals  with  impunity.  Other  witnesses 
of  repute  have  testified  to  the  appearance  of  strange 
luminous  bodies,  the  raining  down  of  liquid  scent,  the 
production  of  inexplicable  musical  sounds  and  other 
phenomena  equally  marvellous.2 

Now  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  Mr.  Crookes  and 
those  with  him  could  in  their  normal  senses  have 
imagined  movements  of  a  self-registering  balance 
which  never  really  took  place,  or  have  failed  to 
detect  actual  movements  on  Home's  part ;  or  that 
Home  could  have  seemed  to  Lord  Lindsay  and 
others  to  add  some  fraction  of  a  cubit  to  his 
stature  or  to  float  unsupported  in  the  air,  when 
he  was  really  only  stretching  cramped  muscles,  or 
supporting  himself  on  a  captive  balloon,  or  by 
unseen  wires ;  or  that  when  he  was  seen  to  carry 
hot  coals  about  the  room,  and  to  place  them,  still 
glowing,  upon  the  bare  head  of  Mr.  S.  C.  Hall,  he 
relied  upon  the  observers  overlooking  such  incon- 
spicuous objects  as  a  pair  of  tongs  and  an  asbestos 

1  Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  vi.  p.  98. 

2  See,  for  instance,  the  Report  on  Spiritualism  of  the  London  Dia- 
lectical Society;  Experiences  of  Mr.  Stainton  Moses  in  Proc.  S.P.R., 
vol.  ix.  p.    245;    and*  article,    "  Spiritualism,"  in   the  Encyclopedia 
Britanmca,  by  Mrs.  Kenry  Sidgwick,  and  in  Chambers'  Encyclopedia. 
by  Alfred  Russel  Wallace,  F.R.S. 


APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

skull-cap — alternatives  which  must  have  been  at 
least  as  obvious  at  the  time  to  the  observers  who, 
by  recording  these  things,  have  imperilled  their 
reputation  for  scientific  acumen,  and  even  for  com- 
mon sense,  as  now  to  their  irresponsible  critics. 
But  it  is  certainly  not  less  difficult  to  believe,  on 
such  grounds  as  these,  in  the  discovery  of  a  new 
physical  force — or  rather  new  forces  ;  for  the  energy 
which  could  move  a  balance  cannot  properly  be 
assumed  to  be  identical  with  the  energy  which 
could  increase  Home's  stature,  or  restrain  the 
action  of  fire ;  or,  as  elsewhere  recorded,  bring 
delicate  flowers  uninjured  through  closed  doors. 
But  fortunately  we  are  not  compelled  to  choose 
between  the  alternatives  of  such  almost  incredible 
stupidity  and  a  multiplicity  of  new  modes  of 
energy.  It  has  been  plausibly  suggested  that  the 
observers  in  such  cases  arc  the  subjects  of  a 
collective  hallucination.  It  is  true  that  we  have 
no  precise  analogy  to  support  such  a  hypothesis. 
The  hallucinations  of  hypnotism  can  be  imposed 
upon  several  subjects  simultaneously  by  dint  of 
repeated  verbal  suggestions.  But  here  there  were 
none  of  the  recognised  preliminaries  to  the  hypnotic 
trance  :  in  many  of  the  recorded  cases  the  observers 
did  not  know  what  to  expect,  and  it  is  clear  that 
verbal  suggestion  was  not  essential  to  the  results; 
while  there  is  no  trace  of  that  break  in  the  continuity 
of  consciousness  which  elsewhere  marks  the  passage 
from  the  hypnotic  to  the  normal  state.  Moreover, 
in  some  of  the  best-attested  cases  it  was  the  pre- 
sumed operator,  and  not  the  witnesses,  who  was 
entranced.  Assuredly  if  the  phenomena  described 
were  due  to  hypnotic  hallucination,  it  was  halluci- 
nation without  any  of  the  characteristic  features  of 
hypnotism.  But  if  we  assume — as  in  the  absence 
of  any  evidence  to  the  contrary  §we  are  entitled, 
if  not  bound,  to  assume — that  th$  observers  were 
in  their  normal  state,  we  can  find  no  nearer  parallel 


THEORIES   AND   CONCLUSIONS.  379 

to  this  supposed  hallucination  than  the  collective 
telepathic  hallucinations  of  which  examples  have 
been  given  in  Chapter  XII.1 

It  is  true  that  the  parallel  is  by  no  means  exact. 
The  hypothesis  requires  us  to  suppose  not  merely 
that  investigators  of  spiritualistic  phenomena  are  liable 
to  sec,  by  hallucination,  things  which  are  not  there, 
but  also  that  they  are  occasionally  withheld,  by  hallu- 
cination, from  seeing  actual  movements  and  objects. 
For  Mr.  Crookes'  automatic  balance  recorded  a  real 
movement;  flowers  and  other  objects  have  actually 
been  brought  into  locked  rooms ;  furniture  has 
been  dcmonstrably  displaced,  or  has  even  moved 
before  the  eyes  of  the  investigators,  and  been  found 
at  the  conclusion  of  the  experiment  in  its  new 
position  ;  an  actual  blister  was  raised  on  Lord 
Lindsay's  skin  by  the  touch  of  a  live  coal  which 
Home  held  in  a  hand  apparently  bare.  Now  if 
these  results  were  clue  to  the  action  of  known 
forces,  muscular  and  other,  it  seems  clear  that  some 
of  the  medium's  movements  and  appliances  escaped 
observation.  We  have,  however,  no  record,  so  far 
as  I  know,  of  collective  negative  hallucination  tele- 
pathically  caused.  But  it  may  be  pointed  out  that 
whilst  it  is  only  in  unusual  circumstances  that  a 
hallucination  of  the  kind  could  attract  sufficient 
attention  to  be  recorded,  negative  hallucinations  can 
be  imposed  without  difficulty  on  a  hypnotic  subject. 
So  that  their  telepathic  origination  in  the  circum- 
stances suggested  presents  no  greater  a  priori  diffi- 
culty than  that  of  positive  hallucinations.  There 
are,  however,  other  differences  between  the  col- 

1  It  need  hardly  be  said  that  the  oft -quoted  story  of  the  European 
who  came  late  and  unobserved  to  the  performance  of  an  Indian  Fakir, 
and  from  a  distant  tree  saw  him  cutting  up  a  pumpkin  when  the 
crowd  saw  him  cutting  up  a  child,  is  merely  ben  trovato.  Norr  indeed, 
until  we  have  contemporaneous  accounts  of  these  performances  from 
carefully  trained  observers  is  there  need  of  any  such  hypothesis  to 
explain  the  feats  of  Phdinn  jugglery.  See  Mr.  Hodgson's  article  in 
Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  ix.  p.  354. 


380  APPARITIONS   AND   THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

lective  hallucinations  recorded  in  Chapter  XII.  and 
those  which  the  hypothesis  requires.  For  the  former 
were  for  the  most  part  vague  and  transitory,  and  were 
rarely  shared  by  more  than  two  persons  ;  whilst  the 
hypothetical  hallucinations  of  the  spiritualistic  stance 
are  persistent,  and  may  affect  several  persons  simul- 
taneously and  to  an  equal  extent.  It  may  be 
suggested,  however,  that  the  different  conditions  in 
the  latter  case — the  common  expectancy,  the  attune- 
ment  of  the  minds  of  all  present  to  a  common  mood, 
the  absence  of  external  solicitation  to  the  senses — 
may  be  sufficient  to  account  for  the  differing  charac- 
teristics of  the  phenomena  observed. 

It  may  be  objected  that  the  problem  does  not 
require  the  intervention  of  such  a  Dens  ex  machina 
as  collective  hallucination ;  that  fraud  and  mal- 
observation  are  adequate  to  account  for  all  the 
facts  reported.  I  confess  that  I  am  unable  so 
lightly  to  set  aside  the  deliberate  testimony  of 
men  of  proved  scientific  distinction,  whose  word 
is  still  regarded  as  authoritative  in  observations 
not  less  delicate,  and  for  results  to  the  layman 
hardly  less  dubious.  But  I  do  not  suggest  that 
the  phenomena,  however  interpreted,  arc  likely  to 
add  anything  to  the  proof  of  telepathy.  I  would 
merely  urge  that,  as  until  the  possibility  of  thought- 
transference  in  its  various  forms  has  been  patiently 
and  rigorously  excluded,  odylic  flames  and  magnetic 
influences  must  remain  unproven,  so,  in  dealing 
with  that  residuum  of  evidence  for  the  physical 
phenomena  called  spiritualistic  which  appears  in- 
explicable by  fraud  and  malobservation,  the  possi- 
bility of  collective  hallucination  telepathically  caused 
should  be  kept  in  view.1 

It  should  be  observed  that  the  treatment  of  tele- 

1  The  explanation  suggested  in  the  text  for  the  physical  phenomena 
of  Spiritualism  is  worked  out  in  some  detail  b,"  Von  Hartmann,  the 
philosopher  of  the  unconscious,  in  a  little  treatise^  on  Spiritism,  which 
has  been  translated  into  English  by  "C.C.M.,"  1885.  But  Von 


THEORIES   AND   CONCLUSIONS.  381 

pathy  by  those  responsible  for  the  word  involves  as 
little  of  theory  as  Newton's  conception  of  gravitation. 
What  Newton  did  was  to  find  the  simplest  general 
expression  for  the  observed  facts  by  saying  that  the 
heavenly  bodies  acted  upon  each  other  with  a  certain 
measurable  force.  He  did  not  attempt  to  explain  the 
mode  of  this  action.  And  whilst  succeeding  astron- 
omers have  for  the  most  part  been  content  to  follow 
Newton's  example,  the  science  has,  nevertheless, 
advanced  in  a  steady  and  continuous  progression. 
So  the  conception  of  telepathy  simply  colligates  the 
observed  facts  of  spontaneous  and  experimental 
thought-transference,  as  instances  of  the  action  of  one 
mind  upon  another.  The  nature  of  the  action  the 
theory  docs  not  discuss  ;  it  merely  defines  it  nega- 
tively, as  being  outside  the  normal  sensory  channels. 
In  accordance  with  this  view,  Mr.  Gurney,  and  the 
English  investigators  generally,  have  consistently 
employed  psychical  terms  in  their  discussion  ©f  the 
subject :  they  have  spoken  of  the  transmission  of 
ideas,  not  neuroses,  and  of  the  affection  of  mind  by 
mind,  rather  than  of  brain  by  brain.1  This  treatment 
involves  no  prejudgment  of  the  question.  Whatever 
may  be  the  nature  of  the  cause,  we  know  the  effects 
at  present  only  in  their  psychical  aspect,  and  in 
default  of  a  physical  theory,  as  psychical  it  seemed 
convenient  to  discuss  them.  This  mode  of  speech  is 
of  course  as  legitimate  as  the  popular  usage  which 
permits  us,  when  the  sun's  rays  strike  upon  our  retina, 
to  ignore  the  intervening  physical  processes,  and  to 
express  only  the  psychical  result,  "  I  see  the  sun." 
But  Mr.  Gurney  and  his  colleagues  were  further 
influenced  in  adopting  and  maintaining  this  usage  by 
a  conviction  that  the  advancement  of  the  subject  has 

Ilartmann  believes  that  some  of  the  phenomena  are  produced  by  a 
hypothetical  nerve-force  under  the  direction  of  the  somnambulic  self 
of  the  medium — a  prod'gality  of  hypotheses  which  in  the  circumstances 
is  surely  superfluous.  * 

1  See  lyhantasws  of  the  Living^  vol.  i.  pp.  110-113. 


382  APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

not  hitherto  been  dependent  upon  the  discovery  of 
physical  correlates  for  the  observed  psychical  action, 
and  that  the  energy  which  would  be  diverted  to 
the  search  for  explanations,  could  be  more  fruitfully 
employed  on  the  still  imperfect  demonstration  that 
there  is  something  to  be  explained. 

But  it  is  obvious  that  this  attitude  of  reserve  can- 
not be  maintained  indefinitely.  Since  Mr.  Gurney 
wrote  the  sum-total  of  observations  and  experiments 
has  steadily  increased,  and  there  is  hardly  any  longer 
room  for  doubt  that  we  have  something  here  which  no 
physical  processes  at  present  known  can  adequately 
account  for.  It  is  not  possible  to  observe  facts  with- 
out speculating  on  the  underlying  law :  it  is  the  law 
indicated  by  the  facts,  more  than  the  facts  themselves, 
which  is  of  permanent  interest  to  the  human  mind. 
Nor  indeed  can  any  fruitful  observation  be  long  main- 
tained, which  is  not  accompanied,  guided,  and  stimu- 
lated by  theoretical  speculation.  Professor  Lodge  has 
called  upon  us,  in  this  matter,  to  "  press  the  doctrine 
of  ultimate  intelligibility;"1  and  in  so  saying  he  has 
at  once  given  articulate  expression  to  an  impulse  from 
whose  blind  urgency  no  student  of  nature  can  escape, 
and  has  formulated  what  is  after  all  the  differentia 
of  the  scientific  mind.  The  average  man  accepts 
things  as  they  are  ;  the  man  of  science  presses  the 
doctrine  of  ultimate  intelligibility. 

But  however  legitimate  at  the  present  stage  of 
the  inquiry  theoretical  speculation  might  seem,  such 
speculation  has  for  the  most  part  been  conspicuously 
wanting  in  the  treatment  of  the  subject  by  those  best 
qualified  to  deal  with  it.  At  any  rate  the  attitude 
of  most  continental  investigators,  like  that  of  their 
English  colleagues,  has  been  a  purely  positive  one. 
They  have  contented  themselves  with  describing  in 
psychical  terms  the  psychical  phenomena  which  they 

< 

1  Presidential  Address  to  the  Section  of  Mathematics  and  Physics  of 
the  British  Association,  August  1891. 


THEORIES  AND   CONCLUSIONS.  383 

have  observed.  There  are,  indeed,  some  competent 
inquirers  at  the  present  time  who  incline  to  attribute 
thought-transference  to  the  direct  action  of  mind  upon 
mind,  or  to  some  process  yet  more  transcendent,  just 
as  in  the  last  generation  there  were  some  who  thought 
they  were  able  to  discern,  in  such  instances  as  came 
under  their  notice,  proof  of  the  agency  of  disembodied 
spirits.  And  Von  Hartmann,  boldly  accepting  the 
facts  wholesale,  ascribes  them  to  a  communication 
between  finite  minds  effected  through  the  inter- 
mediation of  the  Absolute.1  But  until  we  have  ex- 
hausted the  resources  of  the  world  which  we  know, 
we  should  perhaps  conclude,  with  Mistress  Quickly, 
that  there  is  no  need  to  trouble  ourselves  with  any 
such  thoughts  yet. 

Any  attempt  at  a  physical  explanation  is,  of 
course,  beset  with  many  difficulties.  To  begin 
with,  there  is  no  sense-organ  for  our  presumed 
new  mode  of  sensation;  nor  at  the  present  stage 
of  physiological  knowledge  is  there  likelihood  that 
we  can  annex  any  as  yet  unappropriated  organ 
to  register  telepathic  stimuli,  as  the  semicircular 
canals  are  supposed  to  register  the  movements  of  the 
body  in  space.  In  lacking  an  elaborate  machinery 
specially  adapted  for  receiving  its  messages  and  con- 
centrating them  on  the  peripheral  end  of  the  nerves, 
telepathy  would  thus  seem  to  be  on  a  par  with  radiant 
energy  affecting  the  general  surface  of  the  body.  But 
the  sensations  of  heat  and  cold  are  without  quality  or 
difference,  other  than  difference  of  degree ;  whereas 
telepathic  messages,  as  we  have  seen,  purport  often  to 
be  as  detailed  and  precise  as  those  conveyed  by  the 
same  radiant  energy  falling  on  the  organs  of  vision. 

1  u  If  all  individuals  of  higher  or  lower  order  are  rooted  in  the  Absolute, 
retrogressively  in  this  they  have  a  second  connection  among  themselves, 
and  there  is  requisite  only  a  restoration  of  the  rapport  or  telephonic 
junction  ( Teleplionanschhtss}  between  two  individuals  in  the  Absolute, 
by  an  intense  interest  cT  the  will,  to  bring  about  the  unconscious  inter- 
change between  them  without  sense-mediation."  (Spiritism^  by  Ed. 
von- Hartmann,  trans.  C.C.M.,  p.  75.) 


384  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

As  regards  the  mode  of  transmission,  we  find  first 
the  theory  of  a  fluid,  which  owes  its  origin  to  Mesmer, 
and  was  in  vogue  at  a  time  when  fluids  were  still 
fashionable  in  scientific  circles.  Dr.  Bar£ty 1  has 
recently  revived  this  theory  in  a  new  form.  He 
alleges  that  there  is  a  nerve-energy  {force  neurique 
rayonnante]  which  radiates  from  the  eyes,  the  fingers, 
and  the  breath  of  the  operator,  and  is  capable  of 
producing  various  effects  upon  hypnotised  subjects. 
He  finds  that  a  knitting-needle  acts  as  a  conductor 
for  this  force,  and  water  as  a  non-conductor;  that  the 
nerve-rays  can  be  focussed  by  a  magnifying-glass, 
refracted  by  a  prism,  and  reflected  from  a  mirror  or 
other  plane  surface  at  an  angle  equal  to  the  angle  of 
incidence.  Dr.  Bar£ty  has  omitted  to  state  whether 
in  the  latter  case  the  rays  are  polarised,  nor  has 
he  shown  whether  the  force  varies  inversely  to  the 
square  of  the  distance.  But  the  consideration  of  these 
remarkable  results  need  hardly  detain  us  long,  since 
they  can  all  readily  be  explained  by  suggestion, 
verbal  or  telepathic. 

If  we  leave  fluids  and  radiant  nerve-energy  on  one 
side,  we  find  practically  only  one  mode  suggested  for  the 
telepathic  transference — viz.,  that  the  physical  changes 
which  are  the  accompaniments  of  thought  or  sensa- 
tion in  the  agent  are  transmitted  from  the  brain  as 
undulations  in  the  intervening  medium,  and  thus 
excite  corresponding  changes  in  some  other  brain, 
without  any  other  portion  of  the  organism  being 
necessarily  implicated  in  the  transmission.  This 
hypothesis  has  found  its  most  philosophical  champion 
in  Dr.  Ochorowicz,  who  has  devoted  several  chapters 
of  his  book,  De  la  Siiggestion  mentale,  to  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  various  theories  on  the  subject.  He 
begins  by  recalling  the  reciprocal  convertibility  of  all 
physical  forces  with  which  we  are  acquainted,  and 

1  Des  Proprittts  physiques  tfune  force  par ticttittre  du  corps  humain, 
1882. 


THEORIES  AND   CONCLUSIONS.  385 

especially  draws  attention  to.  what  he  calls  the  law  of 
reversibility,  a  law  which  he  illustrates  by  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  photophone.  The  photophone  is  an  in- 
strument in  which  a  mirror  is  made  to  vibrate  to  the 
human  voice.  The  mirror  reflects  a  ray  of  light, 
which,  vibrating  in  its  turn,  falls  upon  a  plate  of 
selenium,  modifying  its  electric  conductivity.  The 
intermittent  current  so  produced  is  transmitted 
through  a  telephone,  and  the  original  articulate  sound 
is  reproduced.  Now  in  hypnotised  subjects — and 
M.  Ochorowicz  does  not  in  this  connection  treat  of 
thought-transference  between  persons  in  the  normal 
state — the  equilibrium  of  the  nervous  system,  he  sees 
reason  to  believe,  is  profoundly  affected.  The  nerve- 
energy  liberated  in  this  state,  he  points  ©ut,  "  cannot 
pass  beyond "  the  subject's  brain  "  without  being 
transformed.  Nevertheless,  like  any  other  force,  it 
cannot  remain  isolated;  like  any  other  force  it  escapes, 
but  in  disguise.  Orthodox  science  allows  it  only  one 
way  out,  the  motor  nerves.  These  are  the  holes  in 
the  dark  lantern  through  which  the  rays  of  light 
escape.  .  .  .  Thought  remains  in  the  brain,  just  as 
the  chemical  energy  of  the  galvanic  battery  remains 
in  the  cells,  but  each  is  represented  outside  by  its 
correlative  energy,  which  in  the  case  of  the  battery 
is  called  the  electric  current,  but  for  which  in  the 
other  we  have  as  yet  no  name.  In  any  case  there 
is  some  correlative  energy — for  the  currents  of  the 
motor  nerves  do  not  and  cannot  constitute  the  only 
dynamic  equivalent  of  cerebral  energy — to  repre- 
sent all  the  complex  movements  of  the  cerebral 
mechanism."  1 

Considered  purely  in  its  physiological  aspect,  such 
a  theory  appears  to  present  no  special  difficulty;  or 
rather,  to  put  the  matter  more  exactly,  our  ignor- 
ance of  the  ultimate  nature  of  nerve-processes  is  so 
nearly  complete  as  to  permit  us  to  theorise  in  vacua, 

1  De  la  Suggestion  mentale,  Paris,  i$87,  pp.  511,  512. 

25 


386  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

with  little  risk  of  encountering  any  insuperable 
obstacle.  It  is  true  that  Professor  G.  Stanley  Hall,1 
in  commenting  on  such  physical  theories  of  telepathy, 
maintains  that  they  contravene  well-established 
physical  laws: — "The  law  of  'isolated  conductivity,1 
formulated  fully  by  Johannes  Muller,  which  Helm- 
holtz  compares  in  importance  to  the  law  of  gravity, 
first  brought  order  into  the  field  of  neurology  by 
insisting  that  impressions  never  jump  from  one  fibre 
to  another.  ...  Is  it  likely  that  a  neural  state  should 
jump  from  one  brain  to  another,  through  a  great 
interval,  when  intense  stimuli  on  one  nerve  cannot 
affect  another  in  the  closest  contact  with  it  ?  "  But 
it  is  clear  that  the  "law"  in  question  is  merely  a 
generalisation  from  observed  facts,  and  from  facts, 
moreover,  not  of  the  same  order  as  those  now  under 
discussion.  For  the  question  here  is  not  of  the 
affection  of  another  nerve-fibre  in  the  same  organism, 
but  of  a  nerve-centre  in  another  organism.  And 
whilst  it  must  have  seemed  d  priori  probable  that 
between  nerves  belonging  to  the  same  system  induc- 
tion would  not  take  place,  because  the  alternative 
could  hardly  fail  to  be  injurious  to  the  organism,  and 
that  the  susceptibility  to  such  induction,  if  originally 
present,  would  have  been  eliminated  in  the  course  of 
evolution,  it  is  at  least  theoretically  conceivable  that 
between  different  organisms  induction  might  have 
persisted  as  innocuous,  or  even  have  been  developed 
as  positively  beneficial. 

In  current  theories  it  is  assumed  that;  there  are 
changes  in  brain-substance  correlated  with  psychical 
events,  and  that  these  changes,  in  their  ultimate 
analysis,  are  of  the  nature  of  vibrations.  That  these 
vibrations  should  be  capable  of  in  some  way  propa- 
gating themselves  through  the  surrounding  medium 
would  seem  therefore  a  natural  corollary.  The  real 
objections  to  such  physical  theories  appear  to  be  of  a 

1  American  Journal  of  Psychology,  vol.  i.,  No.  I. 


THEORIES  AND  CONCLUSIONS.  387 

more  general  kind — viz.,  the  improbability  that  any 
such  capacity  of  nervous  induction  should  have 
remained  unobserved  until  now;  and  the  difficulty  of 
supposing  vibrations  so  minute  to  be  capable  of 
producing  effects  at  so  great  a  distance,  and  to  have 
a  selective  capacity  so  finely  adjusted  that  out  of  all 
the  thousands  of  persons  within  the  radius,  say,  of 
such  a  brain-wave  as  that  set  a-going  by  Mr.  Cleave 
(p.  234),  ©nly  one  set  of  brain-molecules  should  be 
stirred  to  sympathetic  vibration.  The  first  difficulty 
in  its  psychical  aspect  has  already  been  touched  upon 
at  the  commencement  of  this  chapter,  and  need  not 
here  be  further  conside*  :d.  The  second  is  more 
serious.  It  is  difficult  to  find  an  exact  parallel  for 
the  transmission  across  a  considerable  intervening 
space  of  energy  at  once  so  minute  in  quantity  and  so 
highly  specialised.  Mr.  W.  H.  Preece  has  indeed 
shown  that  a  current  can  be  induced  in  a  closed 
circuit  at  a  distance  of  some  three  miles  or  more, 
and  Professor  Lodge  has  reminded  us  (loc.  citl) 
that  "  all  magnets  are  sympathetically  connected, 
so  that,  if  suitably  suspended,  a  vibration  from  one 
disturbs  others,  even  though  they  be  distant  ninety- 
two  million  miles/1  But  the  forces  engaged  are  in 
the  one  case  on  a  commercial,  in  the  other  on  a 
cosmic  scale.  Yet  the  difficulty  is  not,  perhaps, 
insuperable.  The  amount  of  energy  which  has  been 
proved  capable,  at  the  distance  of  half  a  mile,  of 
inducing  sleep  in  a  French  peasant  woman  may  be 
readily  conceived  as  not  more  attenuated  than  those 
"sweet  influences"  which  are  yet  potent  enough  to 
summon  up  before  us  the  vision  of  the  Pleiades  or 
the  glowing  nebula  of  Orion.  Nor  need  the  difficulty 
of  selection  trouble  us  much;  for,  after  all,  one  of 
the  chief  characteristics  of  organic  life  in  general 
is  the  power — a  power  ever  more  differentiated  in 
the  higher  organisms — of  reacting  only  to  selected 
stimuli.  In  snort,  it  is  too  soon  to  say  that  any 
physical  communication  between  living  beings  of 


388  APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

the  kind  suggested  is  inconceivable.  We  shall  be 
justified  in  affirming  or  denying  its  possibility  on 
the  day  when  we  have  guessed  the  secret  of  our 
own  existence,  and  are  able  to  explain  how  some 
fraction  of  a  millegramme  of  albumen  can  contain 
not  merely  the  promise  of  life,  but  the  germ  of  a 
particular  and  individual  organism,  which  shall  reveal 
its  own  pedigree  and  contain  in  itself  an  epitome  of 
life  on  our  planet. 

Until,  therefore,  we  know  more  of  the  nature  of 
the  cerebral  changes  which  are  presumed  to  be  the 
physical  concomitants  of  thought,  we  are  at  most 
entitled  to  suggest  that  some  kind  of  vibrations, 
propagated  somehow  through  a  conjectural  medium 
from  an  unspecified  nerve-centre,  may  possibly  ex- 
plain the  transference  of  thought.  Our  main  justifica- 
tion at  the  present  time  for  discussing  theories  which 
aim  at  some  solution  is  that  they  may  indicate  the 
lines  on  which  experiment  and  observation  may  be 
usefully  directed.  Thus,  it  is  not  known  how  far  the 
results  depend  on  the  state  of  health  of  the  parties  to 
the  experiments,  on  their  occupations  and  state  of 
consciousness  at  the  time ;  whether  blood-relationship 
or  familiar  intimacy  between  agent  and  percipient  is 
conducive  to  success ;  or  whether  the  transmission  is 
in  any  way  affected  by  the  introduction  of  more  than 
one  agent.  And  though  some  progress  has  been 
made  in  tracing  the  development  of  the  transmitted 
idea  after  it  has  reached  the  percipient's  mind,  ob- 
servations on  the  relation  of  the  agent's  impression  to 
that  of  the  percipient  are  at  present  few  and  isolated. 
The  difficulties  of  systematic  experiment  in  this 
direction  are  considerable,  as  will  be  apparent  to  any 
one  who  carefully  studies  the  reports  of  the  Brighton 
experiments  (pp.  65-80) ;  but  it  would  seem  that 
further  investigation  might  be  expected  to  throw 
light  upon  such  questions  as  whether  the  percipient's 
original  impression  is  necessarily  of  the*  same  kind  as 
the  agent's ;  whether  in  the  case  of  visual  impres- 


THEORIES  AND  CONCLUSIONS.  389 

sions  lateral  inversion  or  complementary  colours  can 
be  detected,  and  so  on. 

Once  more,  but  little  has  been  learnt  of  the  purely 
mechanical  conditions  under  which  the  transmission 
is  effected.  There  are  indeed  indications  that  contact 
facilitates  the  transference;1  but  from  the  difficulty 
of  discriminating,  when  contact  is  permitted,  between 
thought-transference  and  muscle-reading,  even  thus 
much  can  hardly  be  affirmed  with  certainty.  On  the 
analogy  of  the  known  physical  forces  it  is  of  course  to 
be  anticipated  that  the  difficulty  of  effecting  telepathic 
communication  would  increase  very  rapidly  with  the 
distance.  Yet  even  here  experimental  verification  is 
difficult  to  obtain.  It  is  obvious,  indeed,  in  our  ex- 
periments, that  an  increased  interval  between  agent 
and  percipient,  especially  if  a  wall  or  floor  is  made  to 
intervene,  has  affected  the  results  prejudicially.  But 
it  is  by  no  means  clear,  as  already  said,  how  far  the 
observed  effects  are  to  be  attributed,  not  to  the 
physical  obstacle  of  the  intervening  space,  but  to  the 
psychical  effect  produced  thereby  on  the  parties  to 
the  experiment. 

There  is,  however,  a  difference,  already  referred  to, 
in  the  characteristics  of  the  ideas  transferred  at  close 
quarters,  and  those  transferred  at  a  distance,  which  is 
so  marked  and  so  general  as  to  call  for  some  explana- 
tion of  this  kind.  In  the  experiments  conducted  in 
the  same  room  or  house,  and  in  most  of  the  spon- 
taneous cases  at  close  quarters,  the  idea  transferred 
corresponds  to  a  mental  image  consciously  present 
to  the  mind  of  the  agent  But  the  cases,  whether 
experimental  or  spontaneous,  of  such  detailed  trans- 
ference at  a  distance  of  more  than  a  mile  or  two  are 
very  few — too  few  to  justify  any  valid  generalisation. 
For^in  most  cases  of  thought-transference  at  a  distance 
the  idea  transferred  is  one  not  consciously  present  to 
the  agent's  mind  at  all— the  idea  of  his  own  personality. 

1  See,  for  instance,  Professor  Lodge's  paper  in  Proc.  S.P.&,  vol. 
vil  p.  374. 


390  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

To  some  critics  indeed  (see  Mind>  1887,  p.  280)  this 
difficulty  has  seemed  so  serious  as  to  suggest  doubts 
of  the  propriety  of  referring  the  two  sets  of  results  to 
a  common  category ;  and  Von  Hartmann,  whilst 
claiming,  as  already  said,  connection  through  the 
Absolute  as  the  explanation  of  the  results  obtained 
at  a  distance,  is  content  to  postulate  some  kind  of 
nervous  induction  in  the  case  of  experiments  at  close 
quarters.  But  if  we  examine  the  facts  more  closely 
we  find,  as  has  already  been  shown  in  some  of  the 
trials  conducted  by  MM  Gibert  and  Pierre  Janet 
in  inducing  sleep  at  a  distance,  and  in  a  few  other 
cases  (e.g.j  Nos.  40,  53,  58),  that  the  idea  of  the 
personality  of  the  agent  may  be  transferred  to  the 
percipient,  together  with  the  specific  idea  present  to 
the  agent's  mind.  Moreover,  in  the  recorded  cases 
of  thought-transference  at  close  quarters,  with  hardly 
any  exception,  the  presence  of  the  agent  was  known 
to  the  percipient,  and  no  evidence  for  the  telepathic 
transmission  of  the  idea  of  him  can  therefore  be 
furnished.  But  since  the  idea  of  self  is  probably 
always  present  as  part  of  the  permanent  substratum 
of  consciousness,  and  since  we  have  actual  evidence 
that  in  some  cases  that  idea  may  be  communicated 
to  the  percipient,  together  with  the  idea  consciously 
willed  by  the  agent,  it  seems  permissible  to  conclude 
that  it  may  form  an  element  in  every  case  of  transfer- 
ence. And  if  this  be  admitted,  not  merely  will  the 
difficulty  referred  to  disappear,  but  some  progress 
will  have  been  made  towards  obtaining  experimental 
verification  of  the  physical  effects  of  distance  on  tele- 
pathic transmission.  For  it  would  seem  to  follow  that 
the  telepathic  energy,  which  at  close  quarters  is  able 
to  effect  the  transference  even  of  the  trivial  and 
momentary  contents  of  the  agent's  mind,  is  competent 
when  acting  at  a  distance  to  convey  only  those  con- 
tinuous and  more  massive  vibrations  which  may  be 
presumed  to  correspond  to  his  conception  of  his  own 
personality.  That  the  agent  is  not  consciously 


THEORIES  AND  CONCLUSIONS.  39 1 

"thinking  of  himself"  need  not  prevent  us  from 
accepting  this  view.  Nor  would  a  like  unconscious- 
ness on  the  part  of  the  percipient  be  a  serious  objec- 
tion. For,  as  we  have  already  seen  (Nos.  24,  25, 
27,  etc.),  ideas  can  be  transferred  from  the  sub- 
conscious to  the  subconscious;  and  indeed  there  is 
some  ground  for  thinking  that,  outside  of  direct 
experiment,  the  intervention  of  the  conscious  mind 
in  the  telepathic  transmission  of  thought  is  excep- 
tional. Even  in  some  of  the  most  striking  experi- 
mental cases  it  has  been  shown  that  either  agent 
or  peicipient,  or  both,  were  asleep  or  entranced  at 
the  time.  (See  Chapter  X.,  p.  239.) 

This  close  connection  of  the  activity  of  thought- 
transference  with  the  subliminal  consciousness, 
the  consciousness  which  appears  in  hypnosis,  and 
occasionally  in  dream  -  life  and  in  spontaneous 
trance  and  automatism,  may  perhaps  offer  a  clue  to 
the  origin  of  the  faculty.  For  the  future  place  of 
telepathy  in  the  history  of  the  race  concerns  us 
even  more  nearly  than  the  mode  of  its  operation  ; 
and  we  are  led  therefore  to  ask  whether  the  faculty 
as  we  know  it  is  but  the  germ  of  a  more  splendid 
capacity,  or  the  last  vestige  of  a  power  grown  stunted 
through  disuse.  By  those  who  view  the  matter  simply 
as  a  topic  of  natural  history  the  latter  alternative  will 
be  preferred.  The  possible  utility  of  telepathy  as  a 
supplement  to  gesture,  etc.,  at  a  time  when  speech 
and  writing  were  not  yet  evolved,  is  too  obvious  for 
comment  Whilst,  on  the  other  hand,  such  a  faculty 
can  with  difficulty  be  conceived  as  originating  by  any 
physical  process  of  evolution  in  our  modern  civilisa- 
tion. But  more  direct  evidence  of  the  place  of  tele- 
pathy in  our  development  is  not  wanting.  For  there 
are  indications  that  the  consciousness  which  lies  below 
the  threshold,  with  which  the  activity  of  telepathy  is 
constantly  associated,  may  be  regarded  as  represent- 
ing an  earlier  stage  in  the  consciousness  of  the 
individual,  ctnd  even  it  may  be  an  earlier  stage  in 


392  APPARITIONS  AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

the  history  of  the  race.  The  readiest  ^  means  of 
summoning  into  temporary  activity  this  subter- 
ranean consciousness  is  in  the  hypnotic  trance. 
Now  the  consciousness  displayed  by  the  hypno- 
tised subject  includes,  as  a  rule,  the  whole  of  the 
normal  consciousness,  and  also  extends  beyond  it. 
That  is,  the  hypnotised  subject  is  aware  not  only 
of  what  goes  on  in  the  trance  but  also  of  his 
normal  life :  when  awaked  the  events  of  the  trance 
have  passed  from  his  memory  and  are  not  revived 
until  the  next  period  of  trance.  Our  work-a-day 
consciousness  would  appear  to  be,  in  fact,  a  selec- 
tion from  a  much  larger  field  of  potential  conscious- 
ness. Or,  to  put  it  in  another  way,  the  pressure  on 
the  narrow  limits  of  our  working  consciousness  is  so 
great  that  ideas  and  sensations  are  continually  being 
crowded  out  and  forced  down  below  the  threshold. 
The  subliminal  consciousness  thus  becomes  the  re- 
ceptacle of  lapsed  memories  and  sensations ;  and  up 
to  a  certain  point  in  the  history  of  each  individual 
these  lapsed  ideas  can  be  temporarily  revived.  Long 
forgotten  memories  of  childhood,  for  instance,  can  be 
resuscitated  in  the  hypnotic  trance,  and  ideas  which 
have  demonstrably  never  penetrated  into  conscious- 
ness at  all  can  be  brought  to  light  by  crystal-vision, 
planchette-writing,  or  other  automatic  processes. 

Again,  one  of  the  most  marked  characteristics 
of  the  subliminal  consciousness,  whether  in  dream, 
hypnosis,  spontaneous  trance,  or  in  crystal  vision  and 
other  automatism,  is  its  power  of  visualisation — a 
power  which,  as  Mr.  Galton  has  shown,  and  our  daily 
experience  proves,  tends  to  become  aborted  in  later 
life.  And  beyond  these  indications  of  memories  lost 
and  imagery  crowded  out  in  the  lifetime  of  the 
individual,  we  come  across  traces  of  faculties  which 
have  long  ceased  to  obey  the  guidance  or  minister 
to  the  needs  of  civilised  man — the  psychological 
lumber  of  many  generations  ago.  Such  at  least,  it 
may  be  suggested,  is  a  possible  interpretation  of  the 


THEORIES  AND  CONCLUSIONS.  393 

control  frequently  exercised  by  the  hypnotic  over 
the  processes  of  digestion  and  circulation  and  the 
functions  of  the  organic  life  generally.  And  the  more 
doubtful  observations,  which  seem  to  indicate  the 
possession  by  the  subconscious  life  of  a  sense  of  the 
passage  of  time  and  of  a  muscular  sense  superior  to 
that  of  the  waking  state,  may  be  held  to  point  in  the 
same  direction. 

From  such  facts  and  such  analogies  as  these  it  may 
be  argued  that  telepathy  is  perchance  the  relic  of 
a  once-serviceable  faculty,  which  eked  out  the 
primitive  alphabet  of  gesture,  and  helped  to  bind 
our  ancestors  of  the  cave  or  the  tree  in  as  yet  inarticu- 
late community.  Dr.  Jules  H^ricourt,1  indeed,  goes 
further,  and  suggests  that  we  find  here  traces  of  the 
primeval  unspecialised  sensitiveness  which  preceded 
the  development  of  a  nervous  system  —  a  heritage 
shared  with  the  amoeba  and  the  sea-anemone. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  may  be  urged  that  our 
present  knowledge,  either  of  telepathy  itself  or  of  the 
subconscious  activities  with  which  it  is  sought  to  link 
it,  cannot  by  any  means  be  held  sufficient  to  support 
such  an  inference  as  to  the  probable  origin  of  the 
faculty;  and  further,  that  the  absence  of  mundane 
analogies,  and  the  difficulties  attending  any  such 
explanation  yet  suggested,  forbid  us  to  assume  that 
the  facts  are  capable  of  expression  in  physical  terms. 

It  is  further  urged  that  whilst  the  dependence 
of  telepathy  on  any  material  conditions  is  not 
obvious,  it  is  constantly  associated  not  only  in 
popular  belief,  but  in  testimony  from  trustworthy 
sources,  with  phenomena  which  seem  to  point  to 
supernormal  faculties,  such  as  clairvoyance,  retro- 
cognition,  and  prevision,  themselves  hardly  suscep- 
tible of  a  physical  explanation.  This  view  has 
found  its  ablest  exponent  in  Mr.  F.  W.  H.  Myers.2 

1  Annales  des  Sciences  Psychiques,  vol.  i.  p.  317. 

2  See  his  articles*  on  the   "Subliminal  Consciousness,"   etc.,  Proc. 
S.P.R.,  vol.  vii.  p.  298;  vol.  viii.  p.  333,  pp.  436  */;*?. 

25* 


394  APPARITIONS   AND  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

And  though  Mr.  Myers  would  himself  readily 
admit  that  the  evidence  for  these  alleged  super- 
normal faculties  is  not  on  a  par  with  the  evidence 
for  telepathy,  yet  he  maintains  that  such  as  it  is 
it  cannot  be  summarily  dismissed.  No  doubt  if  it 
should  appear  with  fuller  knowledge  that  there  are 
sufficient  grounds  for  believing  in  faculties  which 
give  to  man  knowledge,  not  derivable  from  living 
minds,  of  the  distant,  the  far  past,  and  the  future, 
it  would  '  be  more  reasonable  to  regard  telepathy 
as  a  member  of  the  group  of  such  supernormal 
faculties,  operating  in  ways  wholly  apart  from  the 
familiar  sense  activities,  and  not  amenable,  like 
these,  to  terrestrial  laws. 

Such  considerations  may  at  any  rate  be  held  to 
justify  a  suspension  of  judgment.  We  are  not  yet, 
it  may  be  said,  called  upon  to  decide  whether  tele- 
pathy is  a  vestigial  or  a  rudimentary  faculty;  whether 
its  manifestations  are  governed  by  forces  correlative 
with  heat  and  electricity,  or  whether  we  are  justified 
in  discerning  in  them  the  operation  of  some  vaster 
cosmic  agencies.  But  there  is  another  aspect  of  the 
question.  The  first  stage  of  our  inquiry  is  not  yet 
complete.  It  would  be  futile  for  us  to  debate  what 
manner  of  new  agency  we  propose  to  believe  in  until 
it  is  generally  admitted  by  competent  persons  that 
the  facts  are  not  to  be  attributed  to  such  recognised, 
if  insufficiently  familiar,  causes  as  illusion,  misrepre- 
sentation, and  the  subconscious  quickening  of  normal 
faculties.  More  and  varied  experiments  are  wanted, 
more  and  more  accurate  records  of  spontaneous  phe- 
nomena ;  and  at  the  present  stage  there  should  be  no 
lack  of  either  one  or  other.  Most  scientific  inquiries 
demand  of  the  investigator  long  years  of  special  study 
and  preparation,  and  an  elaborate  mechanical  equip- 
ment. But  experiments  in  thought-transference  can 
be  conducted  by  any  one  with  sufficient  leisure  and 
patience  to  observe  the  requisite  precautions ;  whilst 
telepathic  visions  need  for  their  recording  no  other 


THEORIES  AND  CONCLUSIONS.  395 

qualifications  than  accuracy  and  good  faith.  In  fact 
Science,  whose  boast  it  was  once 

"  Aerias  tentasse  domos  animoque  rotundum 
Percurrisse  polum," 

has  now  come  down  from  those  airy  realms  and 
turned  its  attention  to  the  things  of  earth,  and 
especially  to  the  study  of  our  human  environment 
and  the  growth  of  human  intelligence.  And  in  this 
its  latest  phase  Science  has,  of  necessity,  followed 
the  tendency  of  the  age  and  become  democratic. 
Every  parent  can  become  a  fellow-worker  with  Darwin 
in  the  laboratory  of  the  infant  mind ;  in  investi- 
gating the  faculties  and  idiosyncrasies  of  man,  even 
the  lines  imprinted  on  his  finger-tips  and  his  shifts  to 
remember  the  multiplication-table,  there  is  not  less 
need  of  the  accumulated  small  contributions  of  the 
many  than  of  the  life-long  labours  of  the  expert.  And 
in  this  newest  field  of  scientific  research  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  results  of  permanent  value  await  the 
worker  who  is  content  to  walk  upon  the  solid  earth, 
and  to  turn  his  eyes  from  the  mirage  which  has 
dazzled  many  of  his  predecessors. 


INDEX. 


AKSAKOF  A.,  cases  recorded  by, 
184,  266 

American  Society  for  Psychical  Re- 
search, founding  of,  4;  experi- 
ments by,  15,  27 

Anaesthesia  telepathically  produced, 
101-104 

Anxiety  as  cause  of  hallucination, 
216,  223 

Auditory  hallucinations,  25,  218, 
247-251,  274-276 

Automatic  writing,  91-96,  183 

Azam  Dr.,  experiments  by,  59 

BABINSKI,  375 

Backman,    Dr.,    experiments    by, 

338>  349,  357 
Barber,    Mrs.,    case   recorded   by, 

1 68 

Barely,  Dr.,  384 
Barnby,  Sir  Joseph,  case  recorded 

by,  358 

Barrett,  Professor,   19,  72 ;  experi- 
ments by,  84 
Beard,  S.  H.,  83 

Bergson,  case  of  cornea-reading,  12 
Bernheim,  Professor,  3,  212,  375 
Bidder,  the  Misses,  case  recorded 

by,  190 
Binet  and   Fe're',   experiments  by, 

209,  375 
Bonjean,  1 1 
Booth,    Miss    Mabel    Gore,    case 

recorded  by,  263    ./ 
Borderland  hallucinations,  193,  217, 

257,  292 


Bourru  and  Burot,  375 

Boyd,  W.,  case  recorded  by,  346 

Boyle,    K.   V.,    case   recorded   by, 

196 

Brown,  Mrs.,  experiments  by,  27 
Bruce,  Archdeacon,  case  recorded 

by,  182 

Busk,  Miss,  case  recorded  by,  205 
Buttemer,  R.  H.,  experiments  by, 

95 

CALDECOTT,    Miss    L.,    case    re- 
corded by,  255 
Campbell,  Captain,  case  recorded 

by,  198 
Campbell,    Miss,    and   Miss  Des- 

pard,  experiments  by,  127 
Carat,  Dr.,  case  recorded  by,  257 
Cards,  power  of  distinguishing  by 

touch,  13 
Gary,    C.    H.,    case   recorded   by, 

274 
Casual    hallucinations,    208,    215- 

225 

Census  of  hallucinations,  215 
Chance  coincidence,  27,  143,  146, 

186-188,  220-225 
Clairvoyance,    2,    19,    204,    393 ; 

definition    of,    326 ,     travelling, 

295,  338-350 

Clairvoyant,  dream,  204,  363,  367 
Clark,  Miss  C.,  case  recorded  by, 

247 
Clothes  of  apparitions,   152,   200, 

230,  244,  246 
Codes,  fraudulent,  10,  II,  25 


39? 


INDEX. 


Collective  agency,  21,  23,  30,  37, 

43,  64,  74 
Collective  hallucinations,   378-380; 

evidential  defects,  153,  268-272; 

explanation  of,  272-274 
Collective  illusion,  268 
Colour,  transference  of,  32,  34,  35, 

64 
Commands,  execution  of  telepathic, 

87,  90,  110-113,  121 
Commands,    telepathic   disobeyed, 

89,90 

Community  of  sensation,  18 
Contact     in     thought-transference 

experiments,  14,  19,  30,  34,  389 
Contagious     hallucinations,     273, 

308,  316 

Cornea-reading,  II,  12,  35 
Crookes,  William,  377 
Crystal  as  means  of  inducing  hal- 
lucination, 352 
Crystal  vision,  2,  75,  353,  357-359, 

373 
Cumberland,  Stuart,  14 

DARIEX,  Dr.,  89,  118 
Dates,  unconsciously  falsified,  153 
Death,  dreams  of,  188;  hallucina- 
tions coinciding  with,  147,  220- 
225 

Deferred  recognition,  247,  254 
Deferred  telepathic  impression,  65, 

79.  264 

Delbceuf,  Professor,  212,  375 
Dessoir,  Max,  experiments  by,  38 
Dempster,     Miss    Hawkins,     case 

recorded  bys  302 
De  Vesci,  Lady,  case  recorded  by, 

181 

"  Dick,"  case  of  pseudo-clairvoy- 
ance, 13 
Direction,  hallucination  in  sense  of, 

.139,  I4i 

Distance,  effect  of  on  experiments, 
74,  105,  132,  139,  389-391 

Dobbie,  A.  W.,  experiments  by, 
338 

Documentary  evidence,  157-159, 187 

Double  impression,  transference  of, 
37 

Dreams,  analogy  with  hallucina- 
tions, 1 86,  189,  197,  207-208 


Dreams,  clairvoyant,  204,  363,  367 
Dream  evidence,  185-189 
Dufay,  Dr.,  experiments  by,  116 
Dupre,  Dr.,  case  recorded  by,  172 
Dusart,  Dr.,  118 

EDGEWORTH,  Prof.,  calculations  of 

probabilities,  27 

Elliotson,  Dr.,  experiments  by,  19 
Emotion,  transference  of,  141,  173- 

180 
Errors  of  inference,  148;  of  memory, 

152,  220-222;  of  narration,  149; 

of  observation,  147 
Esdaile,  Dr.,  19 
Evans,  Rev.  C.  L.,  case  recorded 

by,  299 
Experiments  in   physical  sciences, 

6-9 

FALKINBURG,  S.  S.,  case  recorded 

by,  283 
Fatigue,  influence  on  clairvoyance, 

353»  362,  367 
Fere  (and  Binet),  experiments  by, 

209,  375 
Fraud,  10,  1 1 
Freese,   Mrs.,   case    recorded    by, 

367 
Frost,  Rev.  Matthew,  case  recorded 

by,  265 
Fryer,   Rev.  A.   T,,  case  recorded 

by,  295 

GHOSTS,  2,  150,  153,  226,  272 

Gibert,  Dr,,  experiments  by,  88, 
108 

Gibotteau,  Dr.,  experiments  by, 
So,  139,  368 

Godfrey,  Rev.  Clarence,  experi- 
ments by,  228 

Goodall,  Edward,  case  recorded 
by,  202 

Goodrick,  Rev.  A.  T.  S.,  case 
recorded  by,  279 

Gower,  Leveson,  case  recorded  by, 

175 

Gradual  development  of  impres- 
sions, 76-78,  176,  255 

Gregory,  Prof*  19 

Greiffenberg,  Mrs.,  case  recorded 
by,  277 


INDEX. 


399 


Graves,  Dr.  Hyla,  23 

Grimaldi  and  Fronda,  experiments 

by,  56 
Gurney,  Edmund,  20,  91,  102,  155, 

188,   215,  381  ;  experiments  by, 

20,  27,  33,  57,  60,  101,  213 
Guthrie,  Malcolm,  experiments  by, 

20,  23,  33 

HALL,  Prof.  Stanley,  386 

Hallucinations,  "  borderland,"  193, 
217,  257,  292;  casual,  208,  215- 
225;  census  of,  215;  centrally 
initiated,  214 ;  contagious,  273, 
308,  316:  grotesque,  273,  277, 
278  ;  heteroplastic,  233,  246,  304- 
315;  hypnotic,  208-211,  270, 
378;  of  memory,  154-155.  187, 
271;  post-hypnotic,  211-214; 
pseudo,  68 ;  rudimentary,  126, 
217,  251,  278,  279;  telepathic, 
experimentally  induced,  68,  132, 
134,  140,  141,  226-246 

Hamilton,  E.  W.,  case  recorded 
i>y,  200 

Harrison,  Mrs.,  case  recorded  by, 
194 

Hart,  Ernest,  375 

Hartmann,  Edward,  383,  390 

Haunted  houses,  315-325,  373 

Hay,  Sir  John  Drummond,  case 
recorded  by,  251 

Haynes,  Gideon,  case  recorded  by, 
170 

Hennique,  Leon,  experiments  by, 
129 

Herbert,  Auberon,  Si 

Herdman,  Prof.,  23 

Ilericourt,    Dr.,    118;    Dr.    Jules, 

393 
Heteroplastic    hallucinations,    233, 

246,  304-315 
Hicks,  Dr.,  23 
Hodgson,  Dr.  R.,  13,  155,  379; 

case  recorded  by,  304 
Hudson,  W.  II.,  13 
Hurly,  Miss  Berta,  case   recorded 

by,  258 
Husbands,  John,  case  recorded  by, 

309  , 

Hypercesthesia,  II,  5^,  70 
Hypnotic     state     favourable     to 


thought-transference,  18,  58,  91, 

393 
Hypnotism,  3,  18,  58,  59,  372 

INFERENCE,  errors  of,  148 
Illusion,     collective,     268;     tele- 
pathic, 64,  65,  169 
Impersonal  agency,  179 
Impersonations  in  trance,  329-331 

JANET,  Professor   Pierre,  88,  91, 

209,  390  ;  experiments  by,  108 
James,  Professor  W. ,  cases  recorded 

by,  174,  334 
Johnson,  Miss,  experiments  by,  70, 

75 
Jones,  Sir  Lawrence,  case  recorded 

by,  293 
Jupp,   Rev.  C.    IL,  case  recorded 

by,  290 

KAPNIST,  Countess   Eugenie,  case 

recorded  by,  252 
Keulemans,     J.     G.,    self-induced 

trance,  351 
Kirk,  Joseph,  experiments  by,  131- 

139,  244 

Knott,  Mrs.,  case  recorded  by,  316 
Krebs,  F.  H.,  case  recorded  by,  174 

LANG,  Andrew,  373 

Latency  of  telepathic  impression, 
65,  264 

Latour,  Dr.  Tolosa,  experiments 
by,  119 

Liebeault,  Dr,,  case  recorded  by, 
184;  experiments  by,  63,  212 

Liegeois,  Professor,  experiments 
by,  63,  212 

Lip-reading,  II,  70 

Local  association  of  some  appari- 
tions, 314 

Lodge,  Professor  Oliver,  382,  387, 
389;  experiments  by,  33,  35, 
332,  336 

Luminosity  accompanying  tele- 
pathic hallucinations,  255,  257, 
286 

Luys,  Dr.,  375 

MABIRE,  Etienne,  and  Anton 
Schmoll,  experiments  by,  42 


40O 


INDEX. 


"  Magnetic  sense,"  374 

Magnets,    alleged     influence     of, 

375 

Marks,  F.  A.,  case  recorded  by, 
362 

Maughan,  Miss  Edith,  experiments 
by,  238 

Me  Alpine,  Mrs,,  case  recorded  by, 
260 

Memory,  errors  of,  152,  220-222 ; 
hallucination  of,  154,  155,  187, 
271 

Mesmer,  384 

Mesmerism  (See  Hypnotism) 

Metals,  alleged  influence  of,  375 

Milman,  Mrs.,  case  recorded  by, 
280 

Misinterpretation  of  telepathic  mes- 
sage, 302 

Muscle-reading,  14,  30 

Music,  transference  of,  at  a  dis- 
tance, 122 

Myers,  Dr.  A.  T,,  71,  109 

Myers,  F.  W.  H.,  20,  325,  328, 
393  ;  cases  recorded  by,  183, 
236,  3IJ>  353;  experiments  by, 
21,49,  109-113,  210 

NARRATION,  errors  of,  149 
"Nervous induction,"  102,  386,  390 
Newbold,    Miss    Annie,    case    re- 
corded by,  275 
Newnham,  Rev.  P.  H. ,  experiments 

by,  92 
Number-habit,  16 

OBSERVATION,  errors  of,  147 
Ochorowicz,  Dr,,  384;  experiments 
by,  28,  88 

P ,  ].  II.,  experiments  by,  89, 

1 20 

Pain,  experimental  transference  of, 
23,  34,  60;  spontaneous  transfer- 
ence of,  162,  192 

Paquet,  Mrs.,  case  recorded  by,  360 

Pickering,  Prof.,  on  number-habit, 
16 

Piper,  Mrs.,  phenomena  observed 
with,  327 

Point  de  repere,  183,  210,  214,  217, 
352 


Post-hypnotic  hallucinations,  211- 
214 

Precautions  necessary  in  experi- 
ments, 10-17 

Presumptive    action    of   telepathy, 

372,  373 

Pseudo-hallucinations,  68 
Pseudo-presentiments,  154,  187 
Pseudo-telepathy,  10,  n,  13 

REAL  PERSON  mistaken  for  ghost, 

148 

Reciprocal  impressions,  298-302 
Reddell,  Frances,  case  recorded  by, 

306 

Reichenbach's  phenomena,  374 
Richet,  Prof.,   113,  166;  cases  re- 
corded by,  113,  166,    171,  295, 
311;  experiments  by,  26,  57,  98, 
116,376 

Roux,  J.  C.,  experiments  by,  124 
Royce,   Prof.,   cases    recorded    by, 
J92,    195;    on   pseudo-presenti- 
ment, 154 

SAUVAIRE,  Dr.,  hyperaesthesia  de- 
scribed by,  13 

Schmoll,  Anton,  and  Etienne 
Mabire,  experiments  by,  42 

Schrenck-Notzing,  Dr.  Von,  experi- 
ments by,  54,  239 

Secondary  consciousness,  moral  in- 
feriority of,  95,  96,  331 

Second-hand  evidence  of  little 
value,  150,  152,  156,  288;  useful 
as  standard  of  comparison,  156, 
1 60,  298,  304 

Severn,  Arthur,  case  recorded  by, 
162 

"Shell-hearing,"  355 

Sidgwick,  Mrs.  II.,  experiments 
bv>  65,  7°»  75>  I02J  Professor, 
4,  20,  65,  70,  215 

Sister  Martha,  case  recorded  by,  292 

Sleep,  produced  telepathically,  107- 

H9,  I35>  139 
Sloman,    Rev.    A.,   case    recorded 

by,  167 

Smell,  transference  of,  164 
Smith,  G.  Aul  60,  65,  71,  75,  83, 

ipi,  211,  355 
Smith,  H,,  case  recorded  by,  219 


INDEX. 


401 


Society  for  Psychical  Research,  4, 
10,  83,  215,  374. 

Society  for  Psychical  Research, 
American,  founding  of,  4  ;  ex- 
periments by,  15,  27 

Sounds,  transference  of,  experimen- 
tal, 24,  122;  spontaneous,  168, 
247-251,  274-276 

Sparks,    H.   P.,    experiments    by, 

234 

Spiritualism,  3,  19,  376-380 
Stewart,  Professor  Ealfour,  20 
Subconscious  action   of  telepathy, 

58,  91,  139,  239,  254,  391 
Subliminal  consciousness,  95,  254, 

392 
Sully,  Professor,  215 

TABLE-TILTING,  73,  96,  99 
Tamburini,  Prof. ,  case  recorded  by, 

175 

Taste,  experiments  with  sense  of, 
20,  34,  58 

Telepathy,  definition,  6;  frequently 
subconscious,  58,  91,  139,  239, 
254>  391  J  a  generalisation  not  a 
theory,  381;  origin  of  faculty, 


39 ! -393;    suggested  explanation 

of,  382-388 

Terror,  experimentally  induced,  141 
Thaw,  Dr.  Blair,  experiments  by, 

3'.  8ii  86 
Thought-forms,  15 
Thought-transference,  definition,  6; 

first  observations,  1 8 
Townshend,  C.  H.,  19 
Tudor,  William,  case  recorded  by, 

249 
Tunes,  transference  of,  25 

VENTURI,  Prof.,  case  recorded  by, 

181 
Verrall,  Mrs,,  13,  210 

WESERMANN,  H.  M.,  experiments 

by,  231 

Will,  influence  of,  82,  85,  108 
Willing-game,  15,  19 
Wiltse,  Dr.,  experiments  by,  242, 

342,  344 

Witchcraft,  3,  373 
X.,  Miss,  experiments  by,  122,  210, 

353  ;  cases  recorded  by,  164,  166 


THE  WALTER  SCOTT  PRESS,  NEWCASTLE-ON-TTNB. 


New  Books  and  New  Editions. 


CONTEMPORARY  SCIENCE  SERIES. 

Crown  8vo,  Cloth,  Price  6s.     Illustrated. 

MAN     AND     WOMAN: 

A  STUDY  OF  HUMAN  SECONDARY  SEXUAL  CHARACTERS. 

BY  HAVELOCK  ELLIS, 
Author  of  "  The  Criminal,"  "  The  Nationalisation  of  Health,"  etc. 


Crown  8vo,  Cloth,  Price  35.  6d.    With  Illustrations. 

THE   EVOLUTION   OF    MODERN 
CAPITALISM: 

A  STUDY  OF  MACHINE  PRODUCTION. 
BY  JOHN  A.  HOBSON,  M.A. 


THIRD  EDITION.    Twentieth  Thousand.     Crown  8vo,  Cloth,  6s. 

ESTHER  WATERS:    A   NOVEL. 
BY  GEORGE  MOORE. 

"Strong,  vivid,  sober,  yet  undaunted  in  its  realism,  full  to  the  brim  ol 
observation  of  life  and  character,  Esther  Waters  is  not  only  immeasurably 
superior  to  anything  the  author  has  ever  written  before,  but  it  is  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  works  that  has  appeared  in  print  this  year,  and  one  which 
does  credit  not  only  to  the  author,  but  the  country  in  which  it  has  been 
written."— The  World. 

Crown  8vo,  Half  Antique,  Paper  Boards,  2s.  6d. 

THE  THEATRICAL  WORLD  FOR   1893. 
Bv  WILLIAM  ARCHER. 

"  That  the  literary  drama  dealing  with  social  problems  made  great  advance 
during  1893  is  universally  admitted,  but  if  proof  were  wanted  nothing  could  be 
more  conclusive  than  Mr.  Archer's  series  of  thoughtful  and  pointed  articles."— 
Daily  Chronicle. 

SECOND  EDITION.    Crown  8vo,  Cloth,  Price  6s. 

MODERN    PAINTING. 

BY  GEORGE  MOORE. 

"  Of  the  very  few  books  on  art  that  painters  and  critics  should  on  no  account 
leave  unread  this  is  aurely  one."— The  Studio. 

London :  WALTER  SCOTT,  LTD.,  24  Warwick  Lane,  Paternoster  Row, 


DRAMATIC  ESSAYS. 

EDITED  BY 

WILLIAM  ARCHER  AND  ROBERT  W.  LOWE. 

Three  Volumes,  Crown  Sv09  Cloth,  Price  3/6  each. 

Dramatic  Criticism,  as  we  now  understand  it— the  systematic  appraise- 
ment from  day  to  day  and  week  to  week  of  contemporary  plays  and 
acting— began  in  England  about  the  beginning  of  the  present  century. 
Until  very  near  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  "the  critics"  gave 
direct  utterance  to  their  judgments  in  the  theatre  itself,  or  in  the  coffee- 
houses, only  occasionally  straying  into  print  in  letters  to  the  news-sheets, 
or  in  lampoons  or  panegyrics  in  prose  or  verse,  published  in  pamphlet 
form.  Modern  criticism  began  with  modern  journalism;  but  some  of 
its  earliest  utterances  were  of  far  more  than  ephemeral  value.  During 
the  earlier  half  of  the  present  century  several  of  the  leading  essayists  of 
the  day—men  of  the  first  literary  eminence— concerned  themselves  largely 
with  the  theatre.  Under  the  title  of 

"DRAMATIC    ESSAYS" 

will  be  issued,  in  three  volumes,  such  of  their  theatrical  criticisms  as  seem 
to  be  of  abiding  interest. 

THE  FIRST  SERIES  will  contain  selections  from  the  criticisms 
of  LEIGH  HUNT,  both  those  published  in  1807  (long  out  of  print),  and 
the  admirable  articles  contributed  more  than  twenty  years  later  to  The 
Tatler,  and  never  republished. 

THE  SECOND  SERIES  will  contain  selections  from  the  criticisms 
of  WILLIAM  HAZLITT.  Hazlitt's  Essays  on  Kean  and  his  contem- 
poraries have  long  been  inaccessible,  save  to  collectors. 

THE  THIRD  SERIES  will  contain  hitherto  uncollected  criticisms 
by  JOHN  FORSTER,  GEORGE  HENRY  LEWES,  and  others,  with 
selections  from  the  writings  of  WILLIAM  ROBSON  (The  Old  Playgoer). 

The  Essays  will  be  concisely  but  adequately  annotated,  and  each 
volume  will  contain  an  Introduction  by  WILLIAM  ARCHER,  and  an 
Engraved  Portrait  Frontispiece. 

London :  WALTER  SCOTT,  LIMITED,  14  Warwick  Lane. 


LIBRARY  OF  HUMOUR 

Cloth  Elegant^  Large  Crown  Sv0,  Price  3/6  per  vol. 

VOLUMES  ALREADY  ISSUED. 

THE  HUMOUR  OF  FRANCE.  Translated,  with  an 
Introduction  and  Notes,  by  Elizabeth  Lee.  With 
numerous  Illustrations  by  Paul  Fr^nzeny. 

THE  HUMOUR  OF  GERMANY.  Translated,  with  an 
Introduction  and  Notes,  by  Hans  Miiller-Casenov. 
With  numerous  Illustrations  by  C.  E.  Brock. 

THE  HUMOUR  OF  ITALY.  Translated,  with  an  In- 
troduction and  Notes,  by  A.  Werner.  With  50  Illustra- 
tions and  a  Frontispiece  by  Arturo  Faldi. 

THE  HUMOUR  OF  AMERICA.  Selected  with  a 
copious  Biographical  Index  of  American  Humorists,  by 
James  Barr. 

THE  HUMOUR  OF  HOLLAND.  Translated,  with 
an  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  A.  Werner.  With 
numerous  Illustrations  by  Dudley  Hardy. 

VOLUMES  IN  PREPARATION. 

THE  HUMOUR  OF  IRELAND.  Selected  by  D.  J. 
O'Donoghue.  With  numerous  Illustrations  by  Oliver 
Paque.  [Ready  Sept.  1894. 

THE  HUMOUR  OF  SPAIN.  Translated,  with  an  Intro- 
duction and  Notes,  by  S.  Taylor.  With  numerous 
Illustrations  by  H.  R.  Millar.  [Ready  Oct.  1894. 

THE  HUMOUR  OF  RUSSIA.  Translated,  with  Notes, 
by  E.  L.  Boole,  and  an  Introduction  by  Stepniak. 
With  50  Illustrations  by  Paul  Fr£nzeny. 

THE  HUMOUR  OF  JAPAN.  Translated,  with  an 
Introduction,  by  A.  M.  With  Illustrations  by  George 
Bigot  (from  Drawings  made  in  Japan). 


London :  WALTER  SCOTT,  LTD.  ,  24  Warwick  Lane. 


BOOKS    OF   FAIRY   TALES. 

Crown  Sv0,  Cloth  Elegant^  Price  3/6  per  Vol 

ENGLISH    FAIRY   AND   OTHER 
FOLK  TALES. 

Selected  and  Edited,  with  an  Introduction, 
BY  EDWIN  SIDNEY  HARTLAND. 

With  Twelve  Full-Page  Illustrations  by  CHARLES  E.  BROCK. 


SCOTTISH  FAIRY  AND  FOLK  TALES. 

Selected  and  Edited,  with  an  Introduction, 

BY  SIR  GEORGE  DOUGLAS,  BART. 
With  Twelve  Full-Page  Illustrations  by  JAMES  TORRANCE, 


IRISH  FAIRY  AND  FOLK  TALES. 

Selected  and  Edited,  with  an  Introduction, 

BY  W.  B.  YEATS. 
With  Twelve  Full-Page  Illustrations  by  JAMES  TORRANCE 

London:  WALTER  SCOTT,  LTD.,  24  Warwick  Lane,  Paternoster  Row. 


Crown  8vo,  about  350  pp.  each,  Cloth  Cover,  2s.  6d.  per  vol. 
Half-polished  Morocco,  gilt  top,  55. 

COUNT  TOLSTOI'S  WORKS. 

The  following  Volumes  are  already  issued — 
A  RUSSIAN  PROPRIETOR, 

THE  COSSACKS. 

IVAN  ILYITCH,  AND  OTHER  STORIES. 
MY  RELIGION. 

LIFE. 

MY  CONFESSION. 

CHILDHOOD,  BOYHOOD,  YOUTH. 

THE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WAR* 

ANNA  KARENINA.     33.  6d. 

WHAT  TO  DO  ? 

WAR  AND  PEACE.     (4  VOLS.) 

THE  LONG  EXILE,  AND  OTHER  STORIES  FOR  CHILDREN. 

SEVASTOPOL. 

THE  KREUTZER  SONATA,  AND  FAMILY  HAPPINESS. 
THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  IS  WITHIN  YOU.    2S.  6d. 

Uniform  with  the  above. 

IMPRESSIONS  OF  RUSSIA. 

BY  DR.  GEORG  BRANDES. 


London :  WALTER  SCOTT,  LIMITED,  24  Warwick  Lane. 


THE  SCOTT  LIBRARY— continued. 

14  GREAT   ENGLISH   PAINTERS.     SELECTED    FROM 

Cunningham's  Livei.    Edited  by  William  Sharp. 

15  BYRON'S     LETTERS     AND    JOURNALS,      SELECTED, 

with  Introduction,  by  Mathilda  Blind. 

16  LEIGH  HUNT'S  ESSAYS.    WITH  INTRODUCTION  AND 

Notes  by  Arthur  Symons. 

17  LONGFELLOW'S     "HYPERION,"     "  KAVANAH,"     AND 

"  The  Trouyeres."    With  Introduction  by  W.  Tirebuck. 

18  GREAT    MUSICAL   COMPOSERS.      BY    G.    F,    FERRIS. 

Edited,  with  Introduction,  by  Mrs.  William  Sharp. 

19  THE  MEDITATIONS  OF  MARCUS  AURELIUS.     EDITED 

by  Alice  Zimmern. 

20  THE  TEACHING  OF  EPICTETUS.    TRANSLATED  FROM 

the  Greek,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  T.  W.  Eolleston. 

21  SELECTIONS  FROM  SENECA.    WITH  INTRODUCTION 

by  Walter  Clode. 

22  SPECIMEN  DAYS  IN  AMERICA.     BY  WALT  WHITMAN. 

Revised  by  the  Author,  with  fresh  Preface. 

23  DEMOCRATIC    VISTAS,    AND    OTHER    PAPERS.      BY 

Walt  Whitman.    (Published  by  arrangement  with  the  Author.) 

24  WHITE'S  NATURAL  HISTORY  OF  SELBORNE.     WITH 

a  Preface  by  Richard  Jefferies. 

25  DEFOE'S     CAPTAIN     SINGLETON.      EDITED,      WITH 

Introduction,  by  H.  II  alii  day  Sparling. 

26  MAZZINl'S     ESSAYS :     LITERARY,     POLITICAL,    AND 

Religious.    With  Introduction  by  William  Clarke. 

27  PROSE  WRITINGS  OF  HEINE.    WITH  INTRODUCTION 

by  Havelock  Ellis. 

28  REYNOLDS^    DISCOURSES.      WITH    INTRODUCTION 

by  Helen  Zimmern. 

29  PAPERS    OF   STEELE    AND    ADDISON.      EDITED    BY 

Walter  Lewin. 

30  BURNS'S    LETTERS.      SELECTED    AND    ARRANGED, 

with  Introduction,  by  J.  Logie  Robertson,  M.A. 


London :  WALTER  SCOTT,  LIMITED,  24  Warwick  Lane. 


THE  SOOTT  LIBRARY— continued. 

31  VOLSUNGA   SAGA.     WILLIAM  MORRIS.     WITH    INTRO- 

diiction  by  H.  H.  Sparling. 

32  SARTOR  RESARTUS.     BY  THOMAS  CARLYLE.    WITH 

Introduction  by  Ernest  Rhys. 

33  SELECT    WRITINGS    OF    EMERSON.       WITH    INTRO- 

duction  by  Percival  Chubb. 

34  AUTOBIOGRAPHY    OF    LORD     HERBERT.       EDITED, 

with  an  Introduction,  by  Will  H.  Dircks. 

35  ENGLISH     PROSE,     FROM     MAUNDEVILLE     TO* 

Thackeray.    Chosen  and  Edited  by  Arthur  Galton. 

36  THE  PILLARS  OF  SOCIETY,  AND  OTHER  PLAYS.     BY 

Henrik  Ibsen.    Edited,  with  an  Introduction,  by  Havelock  Ellis. 

37  IRISH    FAIRY    AND    FOLK    TALES.       EDITED    AND 

Selected  by  W.  B.  Yeats. 

38  ESSAYS    OF    DR.    JOHNSON,    WITH    BIOGRAPHICAL 

Introduction  and  Notes  by  Stuart  J.  Reid. 

39  ESSAYS     OF    WILLIAM    HAZLITT.      SELECTED    AND 

Edited,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  Frank  Carr. 

40  LANDOR'S  PENTAMERON,  AND  OTHER  IMAGINARY 

Conversations.    Edited,  with  a  Preface,  by  II.  Ellis. 

41  POE'S  TALES   AND   ESSAYS.     EDITED,  WITH   INTRO- 

duction,  by  Ernest  Rhys. 

42  VICAR  OF    WAKEFIELD.      BY    OLIVER    GOLDSMITH. 

Edited,  with  Preface,  by  Ernest  Rhys. 

43  POLITICAL     ORATIONS,     FROM     WENTWORTH     TO 

Macaulay.    Edited,  with  Introduction,  by  William  Clarke. 

44  THE  AUTOCRAT  OF  THE  BREAKFAST-TABLE.   BY 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes. 

45  THE  POET  AT  THE  BREAKFAST-TABLE.     BY  OLIVER 

Wendell  Holmes. 

46  THE   PROFESSOR  AT   THE   BREAKFAST- TABLE.      BY 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes. 

47  LORD     CHESTERFIELD'S     LETTERS     TO    HIS    SON. 

Selected,  with  Introduction,  by  Charles  Sayla 


London:  WALTER  SCOTT,  LIMITED,  24  Warwick Lan* 


THE  SOOTT  LIBRABY—continued. 

48  STORIES  FROM  CARLETON.    SELECTED,  WITH  INTRO- 

duction,  by  W.  Yeats. 

49  JANE  EYRE.    BY  CHARLOTTE  BRONTfi.    EDITED  BY 

Clement  K.  Shorter. 

50  ELIZABETHAN     ENGLAND.      EDITED    BY    LOTHROP 

Withington,  with  a  Preface  by  Dr.  Furnivall. 

51  THE  PROSE  WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  DAVIS.     EDITED 

by  T.  W.  Rolleston, 

52  SPENCE'S     ANECDOTES.      A    SELECTION,      EDITED, 

with  an  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  John  Underbill. 

53  MORE'S  UTOPIA,  AND  LIFE  OF  EDWARD  V.    EDITED, 

with  an  Introduction,  by  Maurice  Adams. 

54  SADI'S   GULISTAN,    OR   FLOWER   GARDEN.    TRANS- 

lated,  with  an  Essay,  by  James  Ross. 

55  ENGLISH    FAIRY   AND    FO^K    TALES.     EDITED    BY 

E.  Sidney  Hartland. 

56  NORTHERN   STUDIES.    BY  EDMUND    GOSSE,    WITH 

a  Note  by  Ernest  Rhys. 

57  EARLY  REVIEWS  OF  GREAT  WRITERS.     EDITED  BY 

E.  Stevenson. 

58  ARISTOTLE'S     ETHICS.        WITH     GEORGE     HENRY 

Lewes's  Essay  on  Aristotle  prefixed. 

59  LANDOR'S  PERICLES  AND  ASPASIA.     EDITED,  WITH 

an  Introduction,  by  Havelock  Ellis. 

60  ANNALS  OF  TACITUS.    THOMAS  GORDON'S    TRANS- 

lation.    Edited,  with  an  Introduction,  by  Arthur  Gal  ton. 

61  ESSAYS    OF   ELIA.     BY   CHARLES .  LAMB.     EDITED, 

with  an  Introduction,  by  Ernest  Rhys. 

62  BALZAC'S    SHORTER    STORIES.      TRANSLATED     BY 

William  Wilson  and  the  Count  Stenbock. 

63  COMEDIES    OF    DE    MUSSET.      EDITED,    WITH    AN 

Introductory  Note,  by  8.  L.  Gwynn. 

64  CORAL   REEFS.     BY   CHARLES    DARWIN.     EDITED, 

with  an  Introduction,  by  Dr.  J.  W.  Williams. 


London :  WALTER  SCOTT,  LIMITED,  24  Warwick  Lane. 


THE  SCOTT  LIBBAEY— continued. 

65  SHERIDAN'S    PLAYS.,    EDITED,    WITH    AN    INTRO- 

duction,  by  Rudolf  Dircks. 

66  OUR  VILLAGE.     BY  MISS  MITFORD.     EDITED,  WITH 

an  Introduction,  by  Ernest  Bhys. 

67  MASTER  HUMPHREY'S  CLOCK,  AND  OTHER  STORIES. 

By  Charles  Dickens.    With  Introduction  by  Frank  T.  Marzials, 

68  TALES  FROM  WONDERLAND.   BY  RUDOLPH 

Baumbach.    Translated  by  Helen  B.  Dole. 

69  ESSAYS  AND  PAPERS  BY  DOUGLAS  JERROLD.  EDITED 

byWa'terJerrold. 

70  VINDICATION   OF   THE    RIGHTS    OF    WOMAN.      BY 

Mary  Wollstonecraf  t.    Introduction  by  Mrs.  E  Robins  Pennell. 

71  "THE  ATHENIAN  ORACLE."    A  SELECTION.    EDITED 

by  John  Underbill,  with  Prefatory  Note  by  Walter  Besant. 

72  ESSAYS     OF     SAINT- BEUVE.       TRANSLATED      AND 

Edited,  with  an  Introduction,  by  Elizabeth  Lee. 

73  SELECTIONS    FROM    PLATO.       FROM    THE    TRANS- 

lation  of  Sydenhain  and  Taylor.    Edited  by  T.  W.  Bolleston. 

74  HEINE'S  ITALIAN  TRAVEL  SKETCHES,  ETC.    TRANS- 

lated  by  Elizabeth  A.  Sharp.    With  an  Introduction  from  the  French  of 
Theophile  Gautier, 

75  SCHILLER'S     MAID     OF     ORLEANS.      TRANSLATED. 

with  an  Introduction,  by  Major-General  Patrick  Maxwell. 

76  SELECTIONS  FROM  SYDNEY  SMITH,    EDITED,  WITH 

an  Introduction,  by  Ernest  Rhys. 

77  THE  NEW  SPIRIT.    BY  HAVELOCK  ELLIS. 

78  THE  BOOK  OF  MARVELLOUS  ADVENTURES.     FROM 

the  "Morte  d'Arthur."   Edited  by  Ernest  Rhys.    [IWs,  together  with 
No.  1,  forms  the  complete  "  Morte  d'Arthur."] 

79  ESSAYS  AND  APHORISMS.    BY  SIR  ARTHUR  HELPS. 

With  an  Introduction  by  E.  A.  Helps. 

80  ESSAYS     OF     MONTAIGNE.       SELECTED.     WITH     A 

Prefatory  Note,  by  Percival  Chubb. 

81  THE  LUCK  OF  BARRY  LYNDON.   BY  W.  M. 

Thackeray.    Edited  by  F.  T.  Marziala. 


London :  WALTER  SCOTT,  LIMITED,  24  Warwick  Lane. 


THE  SCOTT  LIBRARY— continued. 

82  SCHILLER'S   WILLIAM  TELL.     TRANSLATED,   WITH 

an  Introduction,  by  Major-General  Patrick  Maxwell. 

83  CARLYLE'S     ESSAYS     ON     GERMAN     LITERATURE. 

With  an  Introduction  by  Ernest  Rhys. 

84  PLAYS  AND  DRAMATIC  ESSAYS  OF  CHARLES  LAMB. 

Edited,  with  an  Introduction,  by  Rudolf  Dircks. 

85  THE   PROSE    OF    WORDSWORTH.      SELECTED    AND 

Edited,  with  an  Introduction,  by  Professor  William  Knighfc. 

86  ESSAYS,   DIALOGUES,   AND    THOUGHTS   OF   COUNT 

Giacomo  Leopardi.     Translated,  with  an  Introduction  and  Notes,  by 
Major-General  Patrick  Maxwell. 

87  THE    INSPECTOR-GENERAL      A    RUSSIAN    COMEDY. 

By  Nikolai  V.  Gogol.    Translated  from  the  original,  with  an  Introduction 
and  Notes,  by  Arthur  A.  Sykes. 

88  ESSAYS  AND  APOTHEGMS  OF  FRANCIS,  LORD  BACON: 

Edited,  with  an  Introduction,  by  John  Buchan. 

89  PROSE  OF  MILTON:  SELECTED  AND  EDITED,  WITH 

an  Introduction,  by  Richard  Garnett,  LL.D. 


London :  WALTER  SCOTT,  LIMITED,  24  Warwick  Lane. 


GREAT  WRITERS. 


A  NEW  SERIES  OF  CRITICAL  BIOGRAPHIES. 
Edited  by  ERIC  ROBERTSON  and  FRANK  T.  MARZIALS. 

A  Complete  Bibliography  to  each  Volume,  by  J.  P.  ANDERSON, 
British  Museum,  London. 


Cloth,  Uncut  Edges,  Gilt  Top.    Price  1/6. 


VOLUMES  ALREADY  ISSUED— 

LIFE  OF  LONGFELLOW.    By  PROP.  ERIO  S.  ROBERTSON. 
"A  most  readable  little  work."— Liverpool  Mercury. 

LIFE  OF  COLERIDGE.    By  HALL  CAINE. 

"  Brief  and  vigorous,  written  throughout  with  spirit  and  great  literary 
skill."— Scotsman. 

LIFE  OF  DICKENS.    By  FRANK  T.  MARZIALS. 

"Notwithstanding  the  mass  of  matter  that  has  been  printed  relating 
to  Dickens  and  his  works  ...  we  should,  until  we  came  acrog»  this  volume, 
have  been  at  a  loss  to  recommend  any  popular  life  of  England's  most  popular 
novelist  as  being  really  satisfactory.  The  difficulty  is  removed  by  Mr. 
Marzials's  little  boob,"—Athenceum. 

LIFE  OF  DANTE  GABRIEL  ROSSETTI.    By  J.  KNIOHT. 

"Mr.  Knight's  picture  of  the  great  poet  and  painter  is  the  fullest  and 
best  yet  presented  to  the  public.'1-^*  Graphic. 

LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON.    By  COLONEL  F.  GRANT. 

"Colonel  Grant  has  performed  his  task  with  diligence,  sound  judgment, 
good  taste,  and  accuracy. 'WHurtrafcd  London  Xtwg.  J  *  ' 

LIFE  OF  DARWIN.    By  G.  T.  BETTANY. 

"Mr.  G.  T.  Botany's  Ltfe  oj  Darwin  is  a  sound  and  conscientious  work." 
—Saturday  Review. 

LIFE  OF  CHARLOTTE  BRONTE.    By  A.  BIRRELL. 

"Those  who  know  much  of  Charlotte  BrontS  will  learn  more,  and  those 
who  know  nothing  about  her  will  find  all  that  is  best  worth  learning  in  Mr. 
Birrell's  pleasant  book."— St.  Jamej  Gazette. 

LIFE  OF  THOMAS  CARLYLE.    By  R.  GARNETT,  LLD. 

"This  is  an  admirable  book.  Nothing  could  be  more  felicitous  and 
works •'— ^  Whlch  h°  takeS  US  throu*h 


London:  WALTER  SCOTT,  LIMITED.  24  Warwick  Lane. 


GREAT  WRITERS— continued. 

LIFE  OF  ADAM  SMITH.    By  R,  B.  HALDANE,  M.P. 

"Written  with  a  perspicuity  seldom  exemplified  when  dealing  with 
economic  science."— Scotsman. 

LIFE  OF  KEATS.    By  W.  M,  EOSSETTI. 

"Valuable  for  the  ample  information  which  it  contains."— Cam&rid0« 
Independent. 

LIFE  OF  SHELLEY.    By  WILLIAM  SHARP. 

11  The  criticisms  .  .  .  entitle  this  capital  monograph  to  he  ranked  with 
the  hest  biographies  of  Shelley."— W estminster  Review. 

LIFE  OF  SMOLLETT.    By  DAVID  HANNAY. 

"A  capable  record  of  a  writer  who  still  remains  one  of  the  great  masters 
of  the  English  novel."— Saturday  Review. 

LIFE  OF  GOLDSMITH.    By  AUSTIN  DOBSON. 

"The  story  of  his  literary  and  social  life  in  London,  with  all  its  humorous 
and  pathetic  vicissitudes,  is  here  retold,  as  none  could  tell  it  better,"— Daily 
Hews. 

LIFE  OF  SCOTT.    By  PROFESSOR  YONGE. 

"This  is  a  most  enjoyable  book."— Aberdeen  Free  Prest. 

LIFE  OF  BURNS.    By  PROFESSOR  BLACKIB. 

"  The  editor  certainly  made  a  hit  when  he  persuaded  Blackie  to  write 
about  Burns."— Pall  Mall  Gazette. 

LIFE  OF  VICTOR  HUGO.    By  FRANK  T.  MARZIALS. 

"Mr.  Marzials's  volume  presents  to  us,  in  a  more  handy  form  than  any 
English  or  even  French  handbook  gives,  the  summary  of  what  is  known 
about  the  life  of  the  great  poet."— Satur day  Review. 

LIFE  OF  EMERSON.    By  RICHARD  GARNETT,  LL.D. 

"  No  record  of  Emerson's  life  could  be  more  desirable."— -Saturday  Review. 

LIFE  OF  GOETHE.    By  JAMBS  SIMB. 

"Mr.  James  Sime's  competence  as  a  biographer  of  Goethe  is  beyond 
question."— Manchester  Qua/ dia n. 

LIFE  OF  CONGREVE.    By  EDMUND  GOSSE. 

"Mr.  Gosse  has  written  an  admirable  biography."— Academy. 

LIFE  OF  BUNYAN.    By  CANON  VENABLBS. 

"A  most  intelligent,  appreciative!  and  valuable  memoir."— Scotsman. 

LIFE  OF  CRABBE.    By  T.  E.  KEBBEL.  ' 

"  No  English  poet  since  Shakespeare  has  observed  certain  aspects  of 
nature  and  of  human  life  more  closely. "—Athenaeum. 

LJFE  OF  HEINE.    By  WILLIAM  SHARP. 

41  An  admirable  monograph  .  .  .  more  fully  written  up  to  the  level  of 
recent  knowledge  and  criticism  than  any  other  English  work."— 

London :  WALTER  SCOTT.  LIMITED,  24  Warwick  Lane. 


GREAT  WRITERS— continued. 

LIFE  OF  MILL.    By  W.  L.  COURTNEY. 

"  A  most  sympathetic  and  discriminating  memoir."— Gfo^ow  Herald. 
LIFE  OF  SCHILLER.    By  HENRY  W,  NEVINSON. 

11  Presents  the  poet's  life  In  a  neatly  rounded  picture."— Scottman. 

LIFE  OF  CAPTAIN  MABRYAT.    By  DAVID  HANNAY. 

"We  have  nothing  but  praise  for  the  manner  in  which  Mr.  Hannay  hai 
done  justice  to  him"— Saturday  Review. 

LIFE  OF  LESSING.    By  T.  W.  ROLLESTON. 

"  One  of  the  best  books  of  the  series."— Manchester  Guardian. 

LIFE  OF  MILTON.    By  RICHARD  GARNETT,  LL.D. 

"  Has  never  been  more  charmingly  or  adequately  told.n—Scottith  Leader. 

LIFE  OF  BALZAC.    By  FREDERICK  WEDMORE. 

"  Mr.  Wedmore's  monograph  on  the  greatest  of  Preach  writers  of  fiction, 
whose  greatness  is  to  be  measured  by  comparison  with  his  successors,  is  a 
piece  of  careful  and  critical  composition,  neat  and  nice  in  style."— Daily 
News. 

LIFE  OF  GEORGE  ELIOT,    By  OSCAR  BROWNING. 

"A  book  of  the  character  of  Mr.  Browning's,  to  stand  midway  be- 
tween the  bulky  work  of  Mr,  Cross  and  the  very  slight  sketch  of  Miss 
Blind,  was  much  to  be  desired,  and  Mr.  Browning  has  done  his  work  with 
vivacity,  and  not  without  skill."— M anchetter  Guardian. 

LIFE  OF  JANE  AUSTEN.    By  GOLDWIN  SMITH. 

"  Mr.  Gold  win  Smith  has  added  another  to  the  not  inconsiderable  roll 
of  eminent  men  who  have  found  their  delight  in  Miss  Austen.  .  .  .  His 
little  book  upon  her,  just  published  by  Walter  Scott,  is  certainly  a  fas- 
cinating book  to  those  who  already  know  her  and  love  her  well :  and  we 
have  little  doubt  that  it  will  prove  also  a  fascinating  book  to  those  who 
have  still  to  make  her  acquaintance."— Spectator. 

LIFE  OF  BROWNING.    By  WILLIAM  SHARP. 

"  This  little  volume  is  a  model  of  excellent  English,  and  in  every  respect 
it  seems  to  us  what  a  biography  should  be."— Public  Opinion. 

LIFE  OF  BYRON     By  HON.  RODEN  NOEL. 

"The  Uon.  Roden  Noel's  volume  on  Byron  is  decidedly  one  of  the  mosl 
readable  in  the  excellent  'Great  Writers1  96Tie&."— Scottish  Leader. 

LIFE  OF  HAWTHORNE.    By  MONCURB  CONWAY. 

"It  is  a  delightful  catwm>— pleasant,  genial  talk  about  a  most  interest- 
ing man.  Easy  and  conversational  as  the  tone  is  throughout,  no  important 
fact  is  omitted,  no  valueless  fact  is  recalled ;  and  it  is  entirely  exempt  from 
platitude  and  conventionality."— The  Speaker. 

LIFE  OF  SCHOPENHAUER.    By  PROFESSOR  WALLACE. 

"We  can  speak  very  highly  of  this  little  book  of  Mr.  Wallace's.  It 
is,  perhaps,  excessively  lenient  in  dealing  with  the  man,  and  it  cannot 
be  said  to  be  at  all  ferociously  critical  in  dealing  with  the  philosophy."— 
Saturday  Review. 


London*  WALTER  SCOTT,  LIMITED,  24  Warwick  Lane. 


GREAT  WRITERS— continued. 
LIFE  OP  SHERIDAN.    By  LLOYD  SANDERS, 

"To  say  that  Mr,  Lloyd  Sanders,  in  this  little  volume,  has  produced  the 
best  existing  memoir  of  Sheridan,  is  really  to  award  much  fainter  praise 
than  the  work  deserves." — Manchester  Examiner. 

LIFE  OF  THACKERAY.    By  HERMAN  MERIVALE  and  F.  T.  MARZIALS. 
"  The  monograph  just  published  is  well  worth  reading,  .  .  .  and  the  book, 
with  its  excellent  bibliography,  is  one  which  neither  the  student  nor  the 
general  reader  can  well  afford  to  miss."— Pall  Mall  Gazette. 

LIFE  OF  CERVANTES.    By  H.  E.  WATTS. 

11  We  can  commend  this  book  as  a  worthy  addition  to  the  useful  series 
to  which  it  belongs." — London  Daily  Chronicle. 

LIFE  OF  VOLTAIRE,    By  FRANCIS  ESPINASSB. 

George  Saintsbury,  in  The  Illustrated  London  Newt,  says:— "In  th!§ 
little  volume  the  wayfaring  man  who  has  no  time  to  devour  libraries  will 
find  most  things  that  it  concerns  him  to  know  about  Voltaire's  actual  life 
and  work  put  very  clearly,  sufficiently,  and  accurately  for  the  most  part." 

LIFE  OF  LEIGH  HUNT.    By  COSMO  MONKHOUSB. 

"  Mr.  Monkhouse  has  brought  together  and  skilfully  set  to  order  much 
widely  scattered  material  .  .  .  candid  as  well  as  sympathetic,"  —  Th* 
Athenaeum. 

LIFE  OF  WHITTIER.    By  W.  J.  LINTON. 

«•  Well  written,  and  well  worthy  to  stand  with  preceding  volumes  In  the 
useful ' Great  Writers'  series."— Black  and  White. 


LIBRARY  EDITION  OF  u GREAT  WRITERS,"  Demy  8vo,  2s.  6d. 


london:  WALTER  SCOTT,  LIMITED,  24  Warwick  Lane. 


SELECTED  THREE-VOL  SETS 

IN   NEW   BROCADE  BINDING. 

6s.  per  Set,  in  Shell  Case  to  match.    May  also  be  had  bound  in 
Roan,  with  Roan  Case  to  match,  93.  per  Set. 


THE  FOLLOWING  SETS  CAN  BE  OBTAINED— 
POEMS    OF 


WORDSWORTH 

KEATS 

SHELLEY 


LONGFELLOW 

WHITTIER 

EMERSON 


HOGG 

ALLAN  RAMSAY 
SCOTTISH  MINOR 
POETS 


SHAKESPEARE 
BEN  JONSON 
MARLOWE 


BONNETS  OF  THIS 

CENTURY 

SONNETS  OF  EUROPE 
AMERICAN  SONNETS 


HEINE 

GOETHE 
HUGO 


COLERIDGE 

SOUTHEY 

COWPER 


BORDER  BALLADS 
JACOBITE  SONGS 
OSSIAN 


CAVALIER  POETS 
LOVE  LYRICS 
HERRICK 


CHRISTIAN  YEAR 
IMITATION  of  CHRIST 
HERBERT 


AMERICAN  HUMOR- 

OUS  VERSK 
ENGLISH  HUMOROUS 

VERSE 
BALLADES  AND 

RONDEAUS 


EARLY  ENGLISH 

POETRY 
CHAUCER 
SPENSER 


HORACE 

GREEK  ANTHOLOGY 

LANDOR 


GOLDSMITH 

MOORE 

IRISH  MINSTRELSY 


WOMEN  POETS 
CHILDREN  OF  POETS 
SEA  MUSIC 


PRAED 

HUNT  AND  HOOD 

DOBELL 


MEREDITH 
MARSTON 
LOVE  LETTERS 


BURNS'S  SONGS 
BURNS'S  POEMS 
LIFE  OF  BURNS, 

BY  BLACKIE 


SCOTT'S  MARMION,  Ac. 
SCOTT'S  LADY  OF  LAKE 
LIFE  OF  SCOTT,       [Ac. 
BY  PROF.  YONGB 


London:  WALTER  SCOTT,  LTD.,  24  Warwick  Lane,  Paternoster  Row. 


SELECTED  THREE-VOL.  SETS 

IN   NEW   BROCADE    BINDING. 

6s.  PER  SET,  IN  SHELL  CASE   TO  MATCH. 

Also  Bound  in  Roan,  in  Shell  Case,  Price  95.  per  Set 


0.  W.  Holmes  Set— 

Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast- 
Table. 

Professor  at  the  Breakfast- 
Table. 

Poet  at  the  Breakfast-Table, 


Landor  Set — 

Lander's  Imaginary  Conver- 
sations. 
Pentameron. 
Pericles  and  Aspasia. 


Three  English  Essayists— 
Essays  of  Elia. 
Essays  of  Leigh  Hunt. 
Essays  of  William  Hazlitt 


Three  Classical  Moralists- 
Meditations  of  Marcus 

Aurelius. 

Teaching  of  Epictetus. 
Morals  of  Seneca. 

Walden  Set— 
Thoreau's  Walden. 
Thoreau's  Week. 
Thoreau's  Selections. 


Famous  Letters  Set — 
Letters  of  Byron. 
Letters  of  Chesterfield. 
Letters  of  Burns. 

Lowell  Set— 
My  Study  Windows. 
The  English  Poets. 
The  Biglow  Papers, 


Heine  Set— 
Lifet)f  Heine. 
Heine's  Prose. 
Heine's  Travel- Sketches 


Three  Essayists — 
Essays  of  Mazzini. 
Essays  of  Sainte-Beuve. 
Essays  of  Montaigne. 


Schiller  Set — 
Life  of  Schiller. 
Maid  of  Orleans 
William  Tell. 


Carlyle  Set— 
Life  of  Carlyle. 
Sartor  Resartus. 
Carlyle's  German  Essays. 


London:  WALTER  SCOTT,  LTD.,  24  Warwick  Lane,  Paternoster  Row. 


IBSEN'S    PROSE    DRAMAS. 

EDITED  BY  WILLIAM  ARCHER. 

Complete  in  Five  Vols,    Crown  8vo,  Cloth,  Price  3/6  each. 
Set  of  Five  Vols.,  in  Case,  17/6;  in  Half  Morocco,  in  Case,  32/6. 

"  We  seem  at  last  to  be  shown  men  and  women  as  they  art ;  and  at  first  it 
is  more  than  we  can  endure.  .  .  .  All  Ibsen's  chat  acters  speak  and  act  as  if 
they  were  hypnotised^  and  under  their  creator's  imperious  demand  to  reveal 
themselves.  There  never  was  such  a  mirror  held  up  to  nature  before :  it  is 
too  terrible.  .  .  .  Yet  we  must  retutn  to  Ibsen,  with  his  remorseless  surgery , 
his  remorseless  electric-Iightt  until  wey  toot  have  grown  strong  and  learned  to 
face  the  naked— if  necessary^  the  flayed  and  bleeding— reality." — SPEAKER 
(London). 

VOL.  I.  "A  DOLL'S  HOUSE,"  "THE  LEAGUE  OF 
YOUTH,"  and  "THE  PILLARS  OF  SOCIETY.3'  With 
Portiait  of  the  Author,  and  Biographical  Introduction  by 
WILLIAM  ARCHER. 

VOL.  II.  "  GHOSTS/'  "  AN  ENEMY  OF  THE  PEOPLE," 
and  "THE  WILD  DUCK."  With  an  Introductory  Note. 

VOL.  III.  "LADY  INGER  OF  OSTRAT,"  "THE  VIKINGS 
AT  HELGELAND,"  "THE  PRETENDERS."  With  an 
Introductory  Note  and  Portrait  of  Ibsen. 

VOL.  IV.  "  EMPEROR  AND  GALILEAN.0  With  an 
Introductory  Note  by  WILLIAM  ARCHER. 

VOL.  V.  "ROSMERSHOLM,"  "THE  LADY  FROM  THE 
SEA,"  "HEDDA  GABLER."  Translated  by  WILLIAM 
ARCHER,  With  an  Introductory  Note. 

The  sequence  of  the  plays  in  each  volume  is  chronological ;  the  complete 
set  of  volumes  comprising  the  dramas  thus  presents  them  in  chronological 
order. 

"  The  art  of  prose  translation  does  not  perhaps  enjoy  a  very  high  literary 
status  in  England,  but  we  have  no  hesitation  in  numbering  the  present 
version  of  Ibsen,  so  far  as  it  has  gone  (Vols.  I.  and  II.),  among  the  very 
best  achievements,  in  that  kind,  of  our  generation." — Academy. 

"We  have  seldom,  if  ever,  met  with  a  translation  so  absolutely 
idiomatic." — Glasgow  Herald* 

LONDON :  WALTER  SCOTT,  LIMITED,  24  WARWICK  LANE. 


THE  CANTERBURY  POETS. 

EDITED  BY  WILLIAM  SHARP.    IN  i/.  MONTHLY  VOLUMES. 


Cloth,  Red  Edges       -        Is. 


Cloth,  Uncut  Edges   -        Is.         Pad.  Morocco,  Gilt  Edges,   5s. 


Red  Roan,  Gilt  Edges,  2s.  6d. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  YEAR   By  the  Rev.  John  Keble. 

COLERIDGE Edited  by  Joseph  Skipsey, 

LONGFELLOW      Edited  by  Eva  Hope. 

CAMPBELL Edited  by  John  Hogbsn. 

SHELLEY Edited  by  Joseph  Skipsey. 

WORDSWORTH     Edited  by  A.  J.  Symington. 

BLAKE   Edited  by  Joseph  Skipsey. 

WHITTIER    Edited  by  Eva  Hope. 

PCE    Edited  by  Joseph  Skipsey. 

CHATTERTON   Edited  by  John  Richmond, 

BURNS.    Poems      Edited  by  Joseph  Skipsey. 

BURNS.    Songs   Edited  by  Joseph  Skipsey. 

MARLOWE Edited  by  Percy  E.  Pinkerton. 

KEATS Edited  by  John  Hogben. 

HERBERT Edited  by  Ernest  Rhys. 

HUGO   Translated  by  Bean  Carrington. 

COWPER Edited  by  Eva  Hope. 

SHAKESPEARE'S  POEMS,  Etc. Edited  by  William  Sharp. 

EMERSON    Edited  by  Walter  Lewin. 

SONNETS  OF  THIS  CENTURY Edited  by  William  Sharp. 

WHITMAN    Edited  by  Ernest  Rhys. 

SCOTT.    Marmion,  etc Edited  by  >\  illiara  Sharp. 

SCOTT.    Lady  of  the  Lake,  etc Edited  bv  William  Sharp. 

PRAED  Edited  by  Fiederick  Cooper. 

HOGG    Edited  by  his  Daughter,  Mrs.  Garden. 

GOLDSMITH Edited  by  William  Tirebuck. 

LOVE  LETTERS,  Etc By  Eric  Mackay. 

®5?Nj»ER Edited  by  Hon.  RodenNoeL 

CHILDREN  OP  THE  POETS Edited  by  Eric  S.  Robertson. 

J™*SON  Edited  by  J.  Addington  Symonda. 

BYRON  (2  Vols.) Edited  by  Mathilde  Blind 

THE  SONNETS  OP  EUROPE Edited  by  S.  Waddington, 

££™AY  Edited  by  J.Logie  Robertson. 

DOBELL    Edited  by  Mr*.  DobeU. 

London :  WALTER  SCOTT,  LIMITED,  24  Warwick  Lane 


THE   CANTERBURY  POETS— continued. 

DAYS  OF  TOE  YEAR With  Introduction  by  William  Sharp 

POPE    Edited  by  John  Hogben] 

HEINE    Edited  by  MM.  Kroeker. 

BEAUMONT  AND  FLETCHER  Edited  by  John  S.  Fletcher. 

BOWLES.  LAMB,  Ac.  Edited  by  William  Tirebuck. 

EARLY  ENGLISH  POETRY Edited  by  H.  Macaulay  Fitegibbon. 

SKA  MUSIC   KditedbyMwShaip. 

HERRICK Edited  by  Ernest  Rhys. 

BALLADES  AND  RONDEAUS Edited  by  J.  Gleeson  WhiU. 

IRISH  MINSTRELSY    Edited  by  H.  Halliday  Sparling. 

MILTON'S  PARADISE  LOST Edited  by  J.  Bra dshaw,  M. A.t  LL.D. 

JACOBITE  BALLADS Edited  by  G.  S.  Macquoid. 

AUSTRALIAN  BALLADS Edited  by  D.  B.  W.  Sladen,  B. A. 

MOORE  Edited  by  John  Dorrian. 

BORDER  BALLADS  E  dited  by  Graham  R.  Tomson. 

SONG-TIDE  By  Philip  Bourke  Marston. 

ODES  OF  HORACE Translations  by  Sir  Stephen  de  Vere,  Bt 

OSSIAN Edited  by  George  Eyre-Todd. 

ELFIN  MUSIC    Edited  by  Arthur  Edward  Waite. 

SOUTHEY Edited  by  Sidney  U,  Thompson, 

CHAUCER  Edited  by  Frederick  Noel  Paton. 

POEMS  OF  WILD  LIFE Edited  by  Charles  G.  D.  Roberts,  M.A. 

PARADISE  REGAINED Edited  by  J.  Bradshaw,  M. A.,  LL.D. 

CRABBE Edited  by  E.  Lamplough. 

DORA  GREENWELL    Edited  by  William  Dorling, 

FAUST Edited  by  Elizabeth  Craigmyle. 

AMERICAN  SONNETS   Edited  by  William  Sharp. 

LANDOR'S  POEMS Edited  by  Ernest  Badford. 

GREEK  ANTHOLOGY Edited  by  Graham  B.  Tomson. 

HUNT  AND  HOOD Edited  by  J.  Hanrood  Panting. 

HUMOROUS  POEMS Edited  by  Ralph  H.  Caine. 

tYTTON'S  PLAYS Edited  by  R.  Farquharson  Sharp. 

GREAT  ODES Edited  by  William  Sharp. 

MEREDITH'S  POEMS Edited  by  M.  Betham-Kdwards. 

PAINTER-POETS Edited  by  Kineton  Parkes. 

WOMEN  POETS Edited  by  Mrs.  Sharp. 

LOVE  LYRICS Edited  by  Percy  Hulburd. 

AMERICAN  HUMOROUS  VERSE Edited  by  James  Ban, 

MINOR  SCOTCH  LYRICS Edited  by  Sir  George  Douglas. 

CAVALIER  LYRISTS Edited  by  Will  H.  Dircks. 

GERMAN  BALLADS Edited  by  Elizabeth  Craigmyle. 

SONGS  OF  BERANGER Translated  by  William  Toynbeo. 

HON.  RODEN  NOEL'S  POEMS.  With  an  Introduction  by  R.  Buchanan. 
SONGS  OF  FREEDOM.  Selected,  with  an  Introduction,  by  EL  S.  Salt. 
CANADIAN  POEMS  AND  LAYS  ....  Edited  by  W.  D.  Ughthall,  M.A. 
CONTEMPORARY  SCOTTISH  VERSE.  Edited  by  Sir  Geo.  Douglas. 


NEW  EDITION  IN  NEW  BINDING. 

In  the  new  edition  there  are  added  about  forty  reproductions 
\n  fac-simile  of  autographs  of  distinguished  singers  and  instru- 
mentalists, including  Sarasate,  Joachim,  Sir  Charles  Halle, 
Paderewsky,  Stavenhagen,  Henschel,  Trebelli,  Miss  Macintyre, 
Jean  Gdrardy,  etc. 


Quarto^  cloth  elegant,  gilt  ed^es,  emblematic  design  on 

cover^  6s.     May  also  be  had  in  a  variety 

of  Fancy  Bindings, 

THE 

Music  OF  THE  POETS  : 

A  MUSICIANS'  BIRTHDAY  BOOK. 

EDITED   BY   ELEONORF    D*ESTERRE   KEELING. 


THIS  is  a  unique  Birthday  Book.  Against  each  date  are 
given  the  names  of  musicians  whose  birthday  it  is,  together 
with  a  verse-quotation  appropriate  to  the  character  of  their 
different  compositions  or  performances.  A  special  feature  of 
the  book  consists  in  the  reproduction  in  fac-simile  of  auto- 
graphs, and  autographic  music,  of  living  composers.  Three 
sonnets  by  Mr.  Theodore  Watts,  on  the  "Fausts"  of  Berlioz, 
Schumann,  and  Gounod,  have  been  written  specially  for  this 
volume.  It  is  illustrated  with  designs  of  various  musical 
instruments,  etc.;  autographs  of  Rubenstein,  Dvorak,  Greig, 
Mackenzie,  Villiers  Stanford,  etc.,  etc. 

London :  WALTER  SCOTT,  LTD.,  24  Warwick  Lant